The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: After the Joker murders Robin, Batman must stop the clown prince of crime. However, the Joker has already succeeded in making himself the most powerful criminal on Earth, and Batman must accept help from two cosplayers masquerading as Robin and Batgirl. Rated "M" due to the sadistic character of the Joker.
1. A death in the family

**The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn **

_Part One: A death in the family_

**Dr. Albert Tenamann** quietly boxed up the remains of his personal data. He took one final look around the laboratory as he prepared to lock the door for the last time. The project that he had put the last few years of his life into was over, as far as he was concerned. He'd was horrified to discover that the think tank funding his research was actually associated with the military, and that his research was intended to be used to control weapons of mass destruction. He had hoped to be able to cure various forms of brain disorders, and extend the human life span with computer augmentation of the brain. Alas, his dreams had been shattered, all the alternate avenues of funding that he held out hope for had fallen through one by one. Tenamann finally decided that he'd rather destroy his research than let the military pervert it.

Suddenly, the door burst open and several masked men entered the room. Before he could react, a hand was clamped over his mouth and nose and he was overcome by a powerful vapor. His head started to spin and his vision grayed out.

When he awoke, Tenamann found himself in a dimly lit windowless room, lying on a bed with a lumpy mattress. He heard the creaking of a door open and a very strange looking person entered the room. His visitor wore a day-glow green and pink jacket. His face was stark white, his lips were painted with a vivid red lipstick that exaggerated the size of his mouth, giving him a clown like appearance. Albert knew who this man was from the news reports on TV.

"Let me apologize for the way you were invited here, Doctor." The man said sweetly. "I needed your coming here to be a secret, and I couldn't allow you to refuse my invitation."

Tenamann stood up and confronted his abductor. "I know who and what you are, Joker," he said.

"I guess my fame precedes me." The Joker shrugged his shoulders. "No matter. In any case, please consider yourself my guest. If you agree to work for me, you will be very well treated and richly rewarded. If not, well your body will eventually be found floating in the Gotham river."

"What is it you want from me?" Tenamann asked.

"I am offering you the opportunity to complete your research." the Joker replied. " I will provide you with everything that you require, including the one thing you have so far not been able to obtain; a volunteer subject."

"If you think that I would experiment on one of your victims, you are quite mistaken!" Tenamann stated, standing his ground.

"Set you mind at ease, doctor." The Joker smiled, waving his hands. "Your subject will be quite willing to volunteer without any coercion. You see, I will be your test subject!"

"You?" Tenamann asked with a look of surprise. "Why?"

"Because I have no wish to die." The Joker answered. "Though I may look like the figure of robust health, my body and brain are slowly wasting away from the poisons that disfigured me years ago. I know all too well exactly how much longer I have to live. Your research is the only thing that might extend my life, by putting my mind in a robot body."

"Even if I agree to this, I assume I am still your prisoner?" Tenamann questioned.

"Well I can't let you go free just yet." The Joker replied. "I am a wanted man, after all. I can't take a chance of your leading the police to me. You will be given more suitable quarters, and everything you need."

"And afterwards?" Tenamann asked.

"If you totally succeed, I will effectively have a new identity and nobody will be able to harm me." The Joker laughed. "You won't be a danger to me. In fact, nobody will!"

The Joker held out a pad of paper and a pen.  
"You don't have to shake hands with me, or sign your life away in blood if you agree." The Joker laughed. "Just give me a shopping list of everything that you require, and we can start."

Tenamann hesitated for a moment, and then took the pen and paper from the Joker. He started to write.

* * *

**Robin** pulled the bat-binoculars from his utility belt and observed the warehouse from a distance. The windows were dirty to the point of being mostly translucent, and he could just barely make out the silhouette of two men gaged and tied up in chairs. Perhaps the police intell was correct for a change and the two kidnapped scientists were actually here.

Robin knew that Batman's instructions were to scout out the place and not take any actions on his own, but the warehouse appeared to be empty except for the two kidnappees. The boy wonder crept up on the building silently, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. He removed a high gain hearing intensifier from his utility belt, and attached the sound pickup to a window with a suction cup. Placing the headphones in his ears he listened for any signs of occupants inside the building. Other than the sound of a fan motor running somewhere, and distant traffic in the street he heard nothing. Robin tip-toed around the building, ninety degrees to the alley side wall and repeated his listening. The high gain amplifier picked up the sound of a distant subway train two blocks away in the underground, but nothing else.

Robin tried to peek through the windows but he could make out little inside the dimly lit room through the dirty glass. The two men were in chairs facing a concrete block wall, with only their backs visible to him. At the far corner of the large area of the empty warehouse was a single door leading to the dark alley on the side of the building. It was an easy shot from there to where the two scientists were tied up. Robin decided to chance it. He first used his bat-cellphone to send a quick text to his partner who was busy elsewhere.

* * *

**Batman **lay in wait by the computer laboratory building inside the MIT campus. The FBI had uncovered a plot to kidnap yet another scientist, an IBM fellow who worked out of the computer science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According the Feds, the plot they had uncovered involved men posing as electricians that would enter the campus in a van. The lead tied the plot back to the Joker's gang. Batman had carefully checked out the intell using the Bat-computer, and had come up with a high confidence rating on the information. The only problem was that the Gotham City police had also gotten a tip on the location of the Joker's hideout in the warehouse district of Gotham's lower east side where they suspected he had the two missing scientists held up. Batman didn't like coincidences, and he suspected that one of the tips was a wild goose chase to divert him from the other. Against his better judgment, he let Robin talk him into freeing the kidnappees, while he lay in wait for the Joker and his men. He hoped that he had taken on the more dangerous of the two assignments for himself.

The last class of the evening was breaking up, and the students were leaving the computer department building. Batman spotted the targeted professor and kept behind him in the shadows, within easy reach. It was then that a white van turned a corner, passing by the building. The vehicle was moving slowly, and the driver pulled into a parking spot and switched off his engine. As he exited the van, the Batman grabbed him in a half-Nelson. The man turned to face the caped crusader, and recognized the hero.

"Batman? What do you want with me?" he asked.

Batman carefully frisked him and found no weapons.

"I need you to let me see the inside of your van, if you don't mind" Batman told him.

"Sure, no problem!" the driver stammered. He walked carefully around to the back of the van and fumbled nervously to get the key in the lock to open the door. The inside of the van held the usual assortment of tools, conduit pipe, and wire that one would expect inside of an electrician's work vehicle. As the man went to close the rear door, Batman noticed a sheet of paper attached to the inside with duct tape. Written on it in green and pink crayon was a taunting message.

"Gotcha, Bat-Fink!"

"How did THAT get there?" the van's driver asked.

"It looks like we've both been used and made a fools of." Batman sighed. "I'm sorry to have troubled you, citizen."

Batman now knew that he'd let Robin walk into a lion's den by himself. Phone in hand, he quickly ran toward the Batmobile to return to Gotham as quickly as possible. Tearing down the Mass Pike at 120mph he knew he would probably not make it in time. He hoped that Robin would see his text message before doing anything stupid.

* * *

**Robin **slowly pulled the door open just enough to slip inside. The large open area of the warehouse was lit by only a few low wattage bulbs hanging from the ceiling by long wires ending in sockets. As the boy wonder inched toward the two men by the wall he could feel that something was wrong. A tingle crept up his spine in warning, though he didn't see or hear anything obvious. As he got closer he realized too late what he was missing, the two men hadn't moved an inch since he'd first seen their shadows through the dirty windows. Before he could place a hand on one of their shoulders he already knew that he'd been duped, they were dummies!

Robin heard a low hiss, followed by the sharp pain of a dart striking him in the butt. He yanked the missile out and turned quickly to see the Joker with an air rifle in his hand, laughing at him.

"Well boy blunder, it looks like my little trap worked. Only I don't see Bat-Fink anywhere? Where is he? Did he send a boy to do a man's job?"

Robin tried to move, but his head was already spinning from the drug that had been injected into him.

"Don't worry, it's not poison" The Joker smiled. "Just enough knock out juice to take some of the fight out of you."

Robin felt his legs give out from under him and he landed on the floor. He looked up as the white faced clown in the green and pink outfit slowly approached him.

"You know, I REALLY had hoped that your partner would have accepted my invitation to this little party. He's the one I wanted to dance with, but I guess you'll have to do for now." Joker cackled in a satanic voice. Robin tried to back away, but the Joker was faster and swung the tail stock of the rifle across the back of his head. Robin saw stars and fell to the floor.

"Get his boots!" The Joker called to a henchmen who suddenly appeared from out of nowhere. He was a tough looking plug-ugly, with a face full of scars and covered with beard stubble. Joker's associate grabbed Robin by his legs and untied his right boot, and yanked it free from the foot. He repeated the act on the left before removing the boy wonder's long stockings as well.

The Joker then quickly tied Robin's ankles together with some heavy rope. He grabbed Robin by his left ankle and pulled him across the floor sending his head crashing into a concrete pillar.

"Tickle, tickle!" Joker laughed as he rubbed the bottom of a foot before letting go.

The clown prince then slapped a pair of handcuffs tightly onto Robins wrists, squeezing them tight as hard as he could to limit the circulation of blood in the boy's hands.

Robin looked up though a blurry haze at the Joker, who sat on his haunches to lecture him.

"Do you think this is clown white I wear on my face?" He asked.  
"Well it is not! What you see is my natural skin color after Bat-Fink dropped me into a vat of toxic sludge many years ago. My skin is now without any pigment at all. The makeup I wear helps to blend in the uneven parts. So you see, Bat-fink made me what I am today. I've always wanted to thank him properly, but he never gives me the chance. I guess I'll have to take my pound of flesh out of you instead!"

Joker held out his hand and his henchman tossed him a large,heavy steel crowbar.

"Payback time!" he laughed swinging the weapon at Robin and striking him in the left kidney.

"Did that hurt much?" the Joker asked sincerely. "Let me try it again."

This time the crowbar struck Robins left calf, making a sickening crunching sound as Robin's leg bones shattered.

Robin winched in pain, but refused to cry out. By now the Joker's torment had caused his body's release of adrenaline to completely overcome the effects of the tranquilizer dart.

"My my, you are taking this like a man, I under estimated you." The Joker mocked.

This time he used his foot, kicking Robin in the balls.

"How did THAT feel? Did you enjoy that?" The clown laughed.

* * *

**The Bat-Mobile **weaved in and out of traffic on I-95 cutting off several Connecticut state troopers. For a few minutes the batmobile was followed by a small convoy of police cars, but the batman had little trouble out running them. The cops soon gave up their pursuit of the batmobile, which was moving too fast for their police interceptors. Soon all they could see of the black batmobile was the orange glow of its jet exhaust.

* * *

**Robin **painfully crawled away from the Joker on hands and knees, leaving a trail of blood on the floor.

"Don't avoid me!" the Joker roared, as he took a swing at Robins left knee, smashing it.

Tears came to Robin's eyes, but he bit his tongue and refused to cry out from the pain. The Joker responded by smashing the crow bar across his chest, breaking a few ribs.

Robin coughed and spat up blood. "You sadistic fiend!" he blurted out.

"Now now, flattery will get you nowhere!" the clown responded.

Joker glanced at his watch and smiled.

"Oh dear, I almost forgot, I got you a present!" he said. "It's getting late, I'd better unwrap it before I go."

The Joker made a gesture with his hand and his henchman wheeled over a box on a hand truck. The clown opened the bottom of the box and lifted it off the truck, leaving a large square device on the floor. The joker pressed a button, and a large numeric display lit up. It was a clock, counting down.

"Thought I'd warm you up a bit, this place is rather drafty." the Joker laughed.

The clown and the plug-ugly walked through the door that Robin had opened, and the boy wonder could hear him baring it. The timer indicated just a few minutes remaining.

* * *

**The Batmobile **smashed through the toll booth on the Wheatstone bridge at over 100 mph. The caped crusader roared through the empty streets of Gotham's business districts, now only a few miles from the Joker's warehouse. Batman prayed he'd make it in time.

* * *

**Robin **managed to pull himself toward the door on the other side of the room to reach up for the door handle. He yanked hard on it, but it wouldn't open. The Joker had chained that one on the outside as well. The timer now indicated just seconds remaining.

**Batman **stopped the jet powered car just yards away from the building. No sooner than he had leaped out of the vehicle, there was a tremendous explosion that caused a shock wave sending him flying backwards and smashing him into a building on the other side of the street. Huge chunks of flying debris rained down all over, Batman had to duck under an overhang for protection. His ears rang from the roar of the blast despite the built in hearing protection of his cowl.

It took the Gotham fire department several hours to put the fires out and clear away enough of the debris to allow anyone to get close the the remains of the building. Several buildings on either side of the warehouse had also been destroyed and their combined debris formed a huge mountain. Batman lead the way into the remains of the warehouse as heavy machinery lifted tons of steel girders, and brick. Finally, deep in the wreckage, the caped crusader found Jason's badly charred and mangled body. Batman gingerly carried the remains of his companion away from the hole in the ground, and lay him down in the rear of the batmobile.

* * *

**Bruce Wayne **and Alfred were the only two mourners at Jason's funeral. It had been a private ceremony concluding in the small cemetery on the grounds of the Wayne estate.

"I'm going to find that bastard and kill him!" Bruce whispered to Alfred. "The Joker has crossed my path once too often!"

"If you stoop to revenge, you will need to dig two graves, Bruce." Alfred replied. "One for your victim, and another for yourself."

"I am very well aware of that saying." Bruce answered. "It is actually somewhat comforting. I really don't feel life is worth living anymore."

"I may not be a detective," Alfred stated, "But even I can see that something deeper is happening here. The Joker was clearly hatching some master plot, and the events of this week were only a small part of it."

Bruce took a deep breath and sighed. "You may be right Alfred. I guess the Batman needs to figure out this mystery before the good citizens of this city suffer a far worse fate than poor Robin did."

Alfred patted Bruce on the shoulder. "Don't forget that you also have a commitment to the annual Wayne Foundation technology seminar."

"Yes, I almost forgot about that." Bruce responded. "My heart isn't in it, but I know that it's important. The good work of the foundation must continue. I may need you to cover for me Alfred, but Mr. Wayne will make at least a token appearance."


	2. Two mad men

**The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn **

_Part Two: Two mad men_

**The Joker **knew that the accident which had disfigured him was the cause of his madness. He also knew that the chemicals that he had been exposed to were slowly leaching away at his body, and his mind. A pile of doctors, their corpses now rotting in a Gotham landfill, had examined the Joker, and all of them had told him more or less the same story, he had less than a year to live. In his few saner moments, the Joker used his considerable skills as a hacker to search the Internet, looking for a way to cheat the grim reaper. He soon found the required bits of technology, and the brain trust required to extend his existence beyond the death of his body.

The satanic clown had it all figured out. He would persuade several top scientists to work for him against their will in his quest of eternal life. He still had to obtain the indestructible robot body he needed, but he now knew where one could be found. True, it was literally on the other side of the planet, and its location known only to its mad inventor, but that wasn't a problem. He'd broken into prisons before.

* * *

**Dr. Tenma's** cell was more like a gilded cage. He had his books, television, a deck of cards, paper and pencils. He wasn't allowed a computer, though after some careful considerations he was given an MP3 player. Tenma busied himself writing and listening to his music. Once in a while he did have a visitor, Astro was allowed to see him every other week for twenty minutes. They'd play cards or chess, and engage in simple conversation. Umataro Tenma couldn't understand how Astro was able to forgive him for all the pain and suffering he had caused him. Then again, he never did really understand Astro at all, just like he had never understood his only son, Tobio.

Tenma had been placed in the secure wing of the mental hospital after giving himself up to the police following the events that almost lead to a war between robots and humans. The hospital Tenma was now confined to was also a low security prison for inmates that were under control, and deemed not dangerous. Tenma's rebellious spirit had been broken, and he was comfortable living out the remains of a life sentence in a 100 foot square room.

Tenma had taken a few secrets with him. The secret underground laboratory where he had hidden out after trashing his house and burning down the facilities at the Ministry of Science where he had built Astro, was still intact, it's entrance hidden and know only to him. It was here that he had plotted to start a robot rebellion, and where he'd built both Pluto and Atlas. He had also built, but never completed an even more powerful robot. His insane mind had conceived of a new body for his Tobio, one that would make him the most powerful and deadly force in the world, but Astro had refused to go along with the plan. Tenma had forgotten about that robot after locking it up deep underground in his former lair. Unfortunately, the secret of that robot's existence had been hacked from a computer system that the doctor didn't know he'd ever been connected to.

* * *

**The Joker **held up a blurry B&W photograph and addressed the three henchmen.  
"Gentlemen," he said "we have a little job to take care of in Japan. We need to break this man out of a low security mental prison, and ask him to hand over some hardware that I need."

"What makes you think he'll see things your way." asked the tallest of the three men.

"Oh I can be very convincing when I have to be, you know that!" The Joker replied. "Besides, I have this." he said holding up a vial and a syringe. "This is my own special truth serum. It will bring suppressed thoughts to the surface and out of the mouth very effectively. It does have some nasty side effects, when it wears off it leaves you with one hell of a headache and a slight memory loss."

**Three **men in prison guards uniforms pulled up in an armored truck to the rear of the prison by a door closest to the wing where Dr. Tenma's cell was located. Handcuffed to two of the guards, and walking between them, was the Joker. The third man spoke to the gate guard.

"New Prisoner transfer." He stated bluntly.

"Paperwork?" the gate guard asked.

While the guard was distracted, the Joker slipped out of his cuffs and produced a gas canister. He released the valve and a huge cloud of vapor quickly overpowered the guard. The Joker and his men and been prepared, having previously swallowed antidote pills to counteract the effect of the gas.

The four men entered the prison. There were only two guards inside the cell area, and the Joker overpowered them with a spray can of the same knockout gas. They quickly located Tenma's cell and the Joker opened the lock with the key he had snatched from one of the now unconscious guards. Tenma had been sleeping, but quickly woke to the noise of the break in.

The Joker gave Umataro a whiff of the knockout gas and his men carried him out of the prison and into the waiting armored truck. Once they were a good distance from the prison, the Joker injected Tenma with his truth serum. Tenma woke up in a haze.

"Listen to me, Dr. Tenma." The Joker said in a soft voice. " You are going to tell me the location of your secret laboratory. We need to obtain a certain robot body."

Tenma described the location of the laboratory in a zombie like voice. His mind was off line to his brain, and he had no control over what he was doing.

The armored truck drove on into the night over the few hundred kilometers distance. They stopped at a deserted, desolate field in the far outskirts of Metro City that looked like it had once been a war zone.

"OK doctor, lead the way." The Joker asked nicely. "If you don't mind."

Tenma slowly walked back and forth over the rough ground looking down. The Joker managed to be patient, he knew the drug would do its work and that it might take time for the required memories to surface and register. Finally Tenma stopped and pointed to a spot at his feet. The Joker pulled a powerful flashlight from his pocket and pointed the light on the spot where Tenma had pointed. A large steel cover was screwed into a concrete slab just inches below the surface.

"Bring the tools!" the Joker ordered. The two strongest of the Joker's henchmen attacked the cover with wrenches and pry irons. It took them ten minutes to remove the cover to reveal a metal ladder leading down into the void.

"After you, doctor!" The joker ordered.

Tenma started to climb down the ladder, followed by the Joker and his men. The shaft was fairly wide and the climb was not at all claustrophobic. Along the back wall of the shaft was a vertical track along which could run a lift. When they finally reached the bottom of the ladder they were in fact standing on the floor of a primitive freight lift.

"Lead the way sir!" the Joker told Tenma. Umataro reached up and activated a switch that turned on the lights. He then lead them through a long winding corridor which ended at a large steel door which resembled a bank vault. Tenma keyed in a combination and pulled the door open. They entered a large room filled with scientific equipment. In one corner of the room was a large steel box held closed by a long hinge in the back and several bolts in front. The bolts were locked in place by a series of combination locks.

"I think what we want is inside here." The Joker guessed. "Would you mind opening this for me, Dr. Tenma?"

Tenma worked the combinations of the half dozen locks and removed the bolts. Two of the Joker's henchmen pulled the box open to reveal a glass case. Inside the case stood the most magnificent robot body imaginable. Its polished armor plated skin gleamed in the modest light of the laboratory.

"Wow!" the Joker whisted. "I am going to be so unbelievable in that!"

The robot body was removed from the glass display case and was quickly repacked in a large canvas bag.

"Are we going to take him back with us, or kill him?" one of the Joker's men asked, waving a thumb at Tenma.

"Now that is the question!" the Joker said. "While I really could use his help activating this robot body, Dr. Tenma would be of little use to us, I fear. He is just as mad as I am, and can't be trusted. On the other hand, ending his miserable life might be exactly what he might want. I think it would be better if we were to lock him in this place for a few days with no food or water, and then call the police to take him back to his cell."

The Joker bound Tenma's hands and feet and left him sitting on the floor. They smashed as much of the equipment in the lab as they could, leaving broken glass and metal all over the floor. The four men then carried the sack containing the robot body back the way they came. On their way out, the Joker smashed the locks to the large doorway at the lab's entrance to lock Tenma inside. This time they used the lift to bring them up to the surface. They loaded the sack into the truck, and then the Joker ordered that the lid to the shaft be welded closed.

"I think we need to be going now, we have a plane to catch!" The joker laughed.

**Sitting **in the back of the aircraft, the Joker hacked away on his laptop computer.

"What are you doing boss?" one of the hired low lifes asked.

"I'm going to need the help of a certain Japanese robot expert, and also that of an infamous surgeon." The Joker answered. "Dr. Tenamann put their names on his shopping list. We could have made a side trip to pick them up before we left Japan, but I had a better idea. I'm going to have Bruce Wayne invite them to my lair!"

* * *

**Dr. Tenma** awoke with a splitting headache. He fought to get his eyes to focus in the dim light of his surroundings. With his ankles and wrists bound he crawled along the floor cutting himself on bits of broken glass. He managed to get one of the shards of glass into his hands and used it to slowly cut though the rope binding his wrists. With his hands now free, he untied the rope around his ankles. His vision was clearer now and he started to recognize where he was.

"How the hell did I get here?" he asked himself. Tenma racked his brain trying to remember what had happened. He recalled the hidden room at the far end of the laboratory, and hoped that it was untouched. His fingers probed the wall and found the hidden panel. He opened it and released a latch revealing a door. Inside the hidden room were emergency supplies; food, water, and first aid. Tenma found a universal antidote in the first aid supplies, and hoped it would counteract whatever drug he had been given, and restore his memory.

He walked about the wreckage of his laboratory, taking inventory of what useful items remained. It was then that he spotted the open storage vault, and realized what had been removed. A vague image of a face materialized out of the fog in his mind and he slowly put the pieces together. "I've got to stop that mad man!" Tenma cried out, "But how?"

**Umataro** dusted off an old laptop computer that lay on the floor. He was happy to find it still worked, and booted up. He quickly connected it to a LAN socket, and prayed that the Internet connection into the laboratory was still working. It was. Tenma cross referenced everything he could find on the Joker, and Gotham City. A ton of hits came up on the Wayne Foundation, including their upcoming technology summit forum. Tenma remembered meeting with Bruce Wayne years ago trying to convince him that robotics was the wave of the future. Bruce Wayne's foundation funded research into the betterment of the human condition, and they were heavily into fighting global warming, world hunger, and disease. Wayne had turned Tenma down on his suggestion of developing advanced robots to aid in these causes.

So, it came at a complete surprise to him that this year's conference actually had a series of events and lectures dealing with cybernetics and A.I. Tenma hacked into the Wayne foundation website and drilled down into the server to access the list of invitees. When he found Dr. O'Shay's name on the list, things suddenly clicked.  
"That sneaky bastard!" he muttered to himself. "So that's the Joker's game!"

There was one remaining link left unopened in his web search. Tenma clicked on it and laughed.  
"Looks like there is an Anime, Manga and Comic convention in the same hotel on the same weekend as Wayne's little shindig." Tenma laughed to himself "Astro's little sister would blow a gasket if she knew about it." As that thought bounced around in his head, Tenma suddenly realized what he could do, but first he had to escape from this prison.

Tenma realized he wasn't going to be able to leave by the way he'd been brought in, but he knew there was another way out. In the back of the hidden storage room Tenma opened yet another secret door leading to an access way to a launch pad. Hopefully the escape vehicle he'd left there was still operational. Tenma quickly loaded the aircraft with as much useful equipment and spare parts that he could find. Thankfully the Joker's men hadn't broken the most useful treasures hidden in the lab.

Later, under the cover of night, Tenma returned to the remains of the bordered up house he had left behind years ago. He set up his equipment and waited.

* * *

**Zoran **skipped happily along on her way to school. Halfway there, as she turned a corner, she came to the creepy abandoned house. The city should have torn the place down years ago, but for some reason they never did. Something about it being a crime scene, she had been heard. The yard between the sidewalk and the house was full of tall weeds and the front windows of the place had all been broken by boys throwing rocks. Before she reached the end of the rickety fence separating the yard from the sidewalk, several robot dogs jumped through a hole in the fence and surrounded her.

They were clearly robot dogs, large and menacing looking, made out of gun metal, with mouths full of sharp teeth and having glowing red eyes. The largest of them opened its mouth wide to reveal what looked like the barrel of some kind of cannon. Suddenly, Zoran's ears were attacked by a hypersonic whistle that tore through her brain like a hot knife though butter. Her vision grayed out and she felt herself going limp and falling to the concrete.

She woke up in a strange room full of electronic sounds and flashing lights. She tried to get up, but discovered that she'd been strapped down to an operating table. Except for the illumination of scientific instruments just out of her field of view and an overhead light above the table, the room was dark. She could see that she had been undressed, and lay naked on the hard slab. The panel on her chest was open, and several cables had been inserted. Zoran then panicked to discover that both of her legs were missing below the knees, as were both of her forearms. "What's happening to me?" she wondered.

"I see you're awake!" a nearly familiar deep voice said. "Well no matter, I'll be putting you under for the final procedures. Don't worry, it will all be over very soon, and you will be better than new, and you will remember nothing."

Through the glare of the overhead light shinning in her eyes, Zoran could almost make out the face of the man talking to her. He had a distinctive roman nose and a bushy patch of beard below his chin. She couldn't see his eyes, they were concealed behind a pair of dark glasses. The man reached inside of her chest and yanked at something. Zoran's vision went hazy and she lost consciousness.

* * *

**Zoran **once again found herself outside the creepy old house. She blinked her eyes and looked around. From the position of the sun in the sky she knew it was now late in the afternoon. Where had the day gone to? She could not remember anything that had happened at school that day at all. She didn't even remember leaving school or getting back here. The last thing she did remember, was a sharp pain in her ears on the way to school, then nothing until now.

"Boy, I've had boring days in school, but this one takes the cake!" she muttered to herself. "Oh well, I'd better hurry home." Zoran ran quickly to get as far away from the old house as possible. She decided that tomorrow she would find a different route to school, she never wanted to pass this way again.

* * *

**When **Inspector Tawashi's men found Tenma hiding out inside the old house, they were surprised when he quickly gave himself up. Tawashi had received calls from the occupants of the surrounding homes about strange noises and lights coming from the abandoned house all day.

Tenma had been reported missing following an apparent break in at the prison where had been locked up for the past year and a half. Three night guards had been overcome by sleeping gas, and none of them remembered a thing. Tenma refused to give any information either, claiming he had no idea how he'd gotten out. Reports of the incident were toned down and didn't make the front headline news. Tawashi was glad the way things turned out. He didn't need another panic on his hands flamed by a mob of robot haters.


	3. The trap is set

**The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn **

_Part Three: The trap is set_

**Dr. O'Shay** almost always walked into his office at least thirty minutes after his Secretary and assistant Yuko Kisagri did. Yuko often used the time to read O'Shay's email, and prepare his schedule for the day. She prided herself on running the director's office effectively. Today he was a few minutes later than usual.

"Any important correspondence for me, Yuko?" O'Shay asked as he set his briefcase down under his desk and logged into his computer.

"Yes, there was a note from Zoran's school." Yuko answered. "It seems that she played hooky from school today, and never showed up for class."

"Impossible, I sent her on her way personally this morning like I always do." O'Shay replied. "Of, course she has gotten a little lost and sidetracked before, like the time she found a litter of kittens and spend all morning looking for their mother." He answered himself, scratching his head.

"Yes, I remember that." Yuko replied. "I told the school to call when she finally does show up. I guess there isn't any reason to call the police yet."

"Probably not." O'Shay muttered. "Anything else?"

"Yes," Yuko answered_, "_take a look at this."

"Hmm, this looks like an invitation to a technology conference in America." O'Shay muttered. "Just what I need, another boring trip!"

"Boring?" Yuko asked. "This is the prestigious Wayne foundation! They run many programs promoting the beneficial use of technology. Look at the short list of invitees on this list! This is not just a simple conference, Bruce Wayne is looking to interview technology centers for a contract! The Ministry could use the business, and the Wayne foundation is just the kind of partnership we've been looking for."

"I suppose you're right." O'Shay sighed. "Why don't you make my travel arrangements?"

"According to the schedule of events, they are looking at Marine research, and robotics." Yuko said. "I think maybe you should invite Reno to come along. Didn't he do some research on Marine exploration?"

"Yes, he built a robot Dolphin named Gideon." O'Shay answered. "You know, that's a good idea. Reno is a better speaker than I am anyway, and he loves to travel. I'll videophone him later today."

* * *

**Zoran **walked into the house to find Astro and Cobalt staring at her.

"Boy are you going to catch hell" Cobalt warned her.

"Yeah Zoran," Astro asked "Where the hell were you all day? Your teacher called home, and at Dr. O'Shay's office several times to inquire why you were absent from school."

"But I WAS at school!" Zoran protested. "At least I think I was. I remember walking there, and walking home from school. I just don't remember actually being there, or anything else in between."

"You sure?" Astro asked. "You're not lying are you?" Cobalt added.

"I don't know! I'm confused." Zoran said.

Astro put his hand on Zoran's forehead and looked her in the eyes.

"I believe you Ami." He said. "I hope Dr. O'Shay doesn't get mad though."

Cobalt saw Zoran was upset and wanted to cheer her up.

"Hey Ami!" he called to her from his room. "Come look at this!"

Zoran walked into Cobalt's room and found him pointing at his computer screen.

"See this!" he said. "There is a real cool Anime-Manga-Cartoon convention making its way around the world. It's going to be in the U.S. in Gotham City at the hotel United States later this week, and will get here to Metro City by the end of the year. They will be having a Cosplay party, and you can rent costumes on site."

"That sounds nice." Zoran said. "But that's over half a year away till it gets here. Those rental costumes will be kinda ragged by then."

"I guess so." Cobalt agreed.

Zoran sulked out of the room toward hers and shut the door.

* * *

**Dr. O'Shay ** was relieved to find that Zoran was OK when he got home. Astro told his guardian that she was upset and didn't remember what had happened. O'Shay then decided not to mention the incident and hoped that everything would be OK for her at school the next day.

Later at dinner, O'Shay brought up his travel plans.

"Listen kids," he started. "I've got this seminar to go to in America in a few days. I'll be gone for a week with Reno, and Yuko has offered to stay here with you."

"Where exactly is this seminar?" Cobalt asked.

"It's with the Wayne Foundation in Gotham City." O'Shay answered. "It's the first time they've ever invited experts on robotics to exchange ideas with them. Yuko is hoping the Ministry might land a research grant from the foundation."

"Metro City?" Zoran asked. "What hotel is it in?"

"The hotel United States." O'Shay replied.

"Hey, Cobalt!" Zoran yelled. "Isn't that the same hotel that the convention is in?"

"Yeah it is!" Cobalt replied. "Same week too!"

"Can I come with you, Dr. O'Shay?" Zoran begged sweetly. "You can go to your seminar, and I can go to this Manga convention and attend a cosplay party!"

"I'm sorry, Zoran. I really can't leave you alone at a convention by yourself." O'Shay replied. "I can't accompany you at the convention because I'll be busy at the seminar conference."

Zoran grabbed Astro and backed him up to a wall. "You'll come with me, won't you Ani?"

Astro made a sick face. "I'd rather not!"

"OK then, I'll ask Cobalt to accompany me. I guess you'd rather stay home and watch Chi-tan!"

"Well, on second thought, maybe Chi-tan would be better off with Cobalt." Astro countered.

"I knew you'd see it my way, Ani!" Zoran replied.

Dr. O'Shay heard the entire conversation and laughed to himself.

* * *

**Pinoko **was suspicious of the official looking envelope that arrived in the mail. It looked like some sort of invitation to a wedding or something. She was extremely jealous and cringed when Sensei got within ten feet of another woman at parties. She was considering burning the envelope when Dr. Blackjack walked into the room.

"Ah, I see the mail is here!" He said. "Anything for me?"

Pinoko handed the pile of mail over to him, retaining only her Pokemon magazine. Most of the envelopes contained checks or bills which Dr. Blackjack quickly sorted out and filed. He finally came to the envelope that had attracted Pinoko's attention, and noticed that she was eying him while he opened it.

"I take it you want to know what is in this envelope?" he asked.

"It looked suspicious!" she smirked.

"Well, it is a request from the Wayne foundation to assist in some research." Blackjack said. "They are asking for me to perform experimental brain surgery on a terminally ill patient," he said. "They are offering me a sum of one million dollars for the work, with all expenses paid."

"Where is this?" Pinoko asked.

"The Wayne Foundation hospital is in Gotham City, in the United States." Blackjack said.

"I've never been there before." Pinoko said.

"Then I guess it will be your first time." Blackjack answered.

* * *

**Bruce Wayne **found it difficult to keep his eyes focused on the computer screen. Besides lack of sleep ruining his concentration, his bloodshot eyes kept tearing, and his nose kept running. Alfred knew that his employer was quite human. He was taking Jason's death very hard, and his emotions were running high. Who would have believed that Bruce Wayne would be crying his eyes out over the loss of another human being.

Though he had been at it for over a week, Bruce still hadn't found a solid link to the Joker's activities, though there was some evidence to tie him to the disappearance of Dr. Tenamann. His investigation into the doctor's research revealed that he was an expert on robotic A.I. and had been experimenting with linking human minds and machines. Bruce could not quite figure out why the Joker would be interested in that however.

When he tried to cast a net on the Joker's whereabouts for the past month, there was some evidence that the satanic clown had been out of the country for a few days, possibly in Japan or China. Nothing on news reports showed up from over there, except for a 5th page article with sketchy information about some madman being broken out of a mental prison. Bruce bookmarked that article, and kept looking for more concrete leads.

**Alfred **found mister Wayne asleep at his computer, and half carried him to bed.  
"Thank god, he needs some sleep!" Alfred thought to himself. He was about to shut down the computer, when he noticed all of the open tabs on the browser. Alfred made himself a rather strong cup of coffee and started to look at the pages that Bruce had been reading on-line.

It didn't take Alfred long to put together a rather good document from the considerable bits of detail that his employer had missed.  
"Master Wayne's mind isn't up to the task in his state." Alfred muttered to himself. "I'm no detective, but I can easily follow the leads that Bruce has stumbled over."

After a few hours of cutting and pasting, Alfred clicked the save button on the Word document he'd compiled and then printed out a hard copy. He left the document where Bruce would find it when he woke up. Yawning, Alfred then turned off the lights and went to bed himself.

* * *

**The Joker** felt like slapping himself on the back. "They took the bait!" he laughed to himself. His trap had worked out perfectly. Both the robot scientist and the surgeon had fallen for the Wayne Foundation invitations and had responded via his spoofed return addresses. In a few weeks he'd have all the pieces in place. Dr. Tenamann promised him that he'd be ready to make the transference as soon as the hardware was ready.

* * *

**Dr. O'Shay **picked Reno up from his apartment near the bay. He was busy by the dock saying goodbye to Gideon, when Zoran ran down to the waterfront to pet the robot dolphin.  
"Hi Gideon!" she giggled. Astro remained by the car and waited. Zoran helped Reno carry his bags to the car, and Astro rearranged the luggage in the trunk so it would all fit. Reno got in the front seat next to the doctor, Astro and Zoran sat in the back.

The only thing that bothered O'Shay as they drove to the airport was the timing. That invitation had come rather last minute, as if the Wayne foundation added him as an after thought. He remembered how Dr. Tenma had once complained about Bruce Wayne being an autrobic, that he had been unapproachable on the subject of robots for as long as he'd known the man. Well, something had clearly changed his mind.

It was a long flight from Japan to Gotham City, with a change of planes in San Francisco. They nearly lost Zoran during the walk between terminals, she kept wandering off and Astro had to keep an eye out for her. "She's acting just a bit out of normal for her" O'Shay thought to himself, but he was willing to cut her some slack as this was the first time she'd ever been on a long plane trip before.

Finally, they landed at Gotham International Airport and made their way to the baggage claim area. Astro stood by the luggage conveyor belt and fetched each bag as they rolled down the ramp. He looked like a Himalayan Sherpa carrying all the luggage, but it was no effort at all for him.

Zoran spotted a man carrying a sign reading "Dr. O'Shay", and she tugged on her guardian's coat.  
"Look, someone's waiting for us!" She told him.

"Hello." the man asked. "Are you Dr. O'Shay?"

"Yes, I am." O'Shay replied.

"I recognized you from your photograph." he said.

"Probably from his nose!" Zoran giggled. O'Shay gave her a look of disapproval, and Astro giggled.

"The Wayne foundation has sent me to take you to your hotel." The man continued, handing him his ID card. O'Shay scanned the card and nodded his acceptance.  
"Thank you." He replied. "We were about to look for a cab."

The chauffeur lead them to a parked limousine, and opened the trunk. He relieved Astro of the luggage, carefully placing each bag into the back of the automobile. The ride to midtown Gotham from the airport took about an hour in what seemed like typical city traffic. The Gotham Island expressway was crowded, as was the Midtown Tunnel under the Gotham river.

As they got out of the stretched Lincoln Town Car, Zoran gazed upward at all of the skyscrapers. While not as modern as Metro City, Gotham's skyline was just as impressive. Across the street from the hotel, the Gotham State Building commanded its position in the skyline at over 100 stories tall, plus the tower of the television antennas on the tip of its spire.

Once inside the hotel, the receptionist behind the registration desk quickly found their room assignment.  
"We have you in a four bedroom suite on the tenth floor." She smiled, waving to a bellhop who grabbed their luggage and placed it on a rolling cart. They road up in the elevator, and followed the bellhop down the hallway to their rooms. It was actually a pair of two bedroom suites joined by an interconnecting door that could be locked at either end, or left open. Each suite had its own kitchen area and living room. Dr. O'Shay and Reno set up housekeeping in room 1007, Astro and Zoran were given the keys to 1008.

Dr. O'Shay looked at the schedule of events that he had been handed. Most of the Wayne Foundation conference was scheduled to take place in the grand ballroom, and nearby rooms on the main floor of the hotel. The second and third floor convention center rooms were occupied by the Anime-Manga-Comic-Cartoon convention, so he knew where he'd be able to find Astro and Zoran later. The robotics conference was located in the penthouse overlook on the very top floor of the building. That was strange, unless Mr. Wayne was going to personally run that himself.

* * *

**Pinoko **dragged Blackjack through the terminal at Gotham International Airport. She spotted a Karvel shoppe, and she was hungry.  
"They didn't have any yummy food on the plane, and I'm not going anywhere until you get me a parfait!" She complained.

Blackjack sighed and let himself be dragged into the ice cream shoppe. Pinoko gave the man behind the counter explicit directions on how to construct the enormous sundae, and they left the shop with her holding onto a large plastic cup filled to the brim with at least 7 different flavors of ice cream and syrup.

By the time they got to the baggage claim area, their luggage was already spinning around on the endless loop of the conveyor belt. Blackjack hailed a cab, and gave the driver the name of their hotel. The cabbie left them standing on the sidewalk next to the Hotel United States and drove off after Blackjack handed him a $100 bill.

They checked into the hotel and were given their room keys.  
"This is a two bedroom suite, Pinoko" Blackjack explained. "You'll have your own room, so maybe you won't keep me up at night."

"That way I can talk to Hosuke-kun on the phone without disturbing you." She said.

"You better not run up a big phone bill." Blackjack warned her.

They took the elevator to the tenth floor and found their suite, number 1009.


	4. The Bat is on the case

**The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn **

_Part Four: The Bat is on the case_

**Dr. O'Shay **fumbled with his tie but kept getting the thinner part either too long or two short. He hadn't slept very well, something in the back of his mind had been disturbing him and he woke several times in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. Reno walked into the room and saw O'Shay in front of the mirror.  
"Let me help you doctor." He offered.

O'Shay shrugged his shoulders and Reno quickly grabbed the tie and his nimble fingers quickly tied a perfect Windsor knot. "There, now you look presentable!" he said.

"Thank you Reno." O'Shay said. "Now we can go down to breakfast."

Zoran and Astro walked through the door joining the two suites. Zoran smiled when she saw O'Shay dressed up in his suit, with a tie and a hat. "You look real nice, doctor O'Shay!" she said.

"Why thank you, Zoran!" O'Shay answered.

"We're going to go down to the convention floor to register and then stop at the costume shop to get our costumes for the cosplay party tomorrow." Astro said.

"I guess you don't want to have breakfast with us?" Reno asked.

"I'm not hungry." Zoran replied. "Besides, we both had a recharge from the power pack that Dr. O'Shay packed."

"Fine." O'Shay answered. "Have fun." He motioned for Astro to come over to him so he could talk to him in private. "Keep a close eye on your sister. We still don't know what happened to her a few days ago. Reno gave her a quick examination, but he didn't detect anything unusual."

"OK, Dr. O'Shay." Astro said. "Zoran is always a handful, but I love her."

"I know you do." O'Shay said. He waved to the two of them as they walked out of the room and closed the door behind them.

Zoran couldn't wait for the elevator, so she dragged Astro into the staircase and they ran down to the second floor in record time. There was already a short line at the convention registration desk, and they had a short wait before someone would take their names. The lady behind the table pinned name tags on Zoran's blouse and Astro's shirt, and handed them programs for the three and a half days of the convention. The first day's schedule was light with mostly video booths running film clips. There were plenty of vendors set up selling old comics, and action figures, with a separate room with Dōjinshi artists selling their stuff.

"Let's go get our costumes before good ones are all gone!" Zoran insisted. "OK" Astro agreed.

He allowed his sister to drag him across to the other side of the hotel where the costume shop was set up in a large room. Just behind the entrance was a large curtain that separated the shop operator from the area where the goods were stored.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" the proprietor asked.

"We need our costumes for the cosplay party tomorrow." Zoran replied.

"Good idea to come early, we'll be swamped with requests by mid afternoon!" the owner agreed. "This shop is automated, we have robotic tailoring machines behind the curtain that can modify any costume for a perfect fit if something won't fit you off the rack. The sorting machines will pick up your selection and put it on the conveyor belt, I can operate the entire thing from my terminal right here." the man told them. He set a large printed catalog on the table in front of Zoran. "Customers still seem to prefer hard copy catalogs." he told them. "Very strange."

Zoran quickly thumbed through the catalog looking for a costume that tickled her fancy. Astro looked over her shoulder, somewhat bored. Finally, Zoran stopped and pointed.

"THAT ONE!" she yelled excitedly. "I want that one!"

Astro and the store manager looked at where her finger was pointing. It was a Bat-Girl costume.

"Ah! Excellent choice!" The man pulled a tape measure out of his pocket and quickly ran it up and down Zoran, taking her measurements.  
"That tickles!" Zoran laughed.

He then quickly typed the stock number into the system, along with Zoran's personal specifications, and they could hear the machinery behind the curtain starting up. After a few seconds, a package wrapped in brown paper rolled down the conveyor belt.

"Would you like to try this on?" He asked.

Zoran had grabbed it out of his hands before he could complete the sentence.

"The changing room is to your right!" he yelled as Zoran was already halfway there!

Two minutes later, Bat-Girl walked out of the changing room.

"Look at me!" Zoran cried. She made some fighting moves in the air, accidentally punching her fist through the wall and making a large hole.

"Oops! Sorry!" Zoran said.

"Wow, that fits you like a glove!" Astro said as he eyed his sister. If he didn't know better, he'd thought he was looking at the real Bat-Girl. The costume was of high quality, not the cheap spandex knockoffs one finds in the Halloween shops. The material felt like it actually contained Kevlar, or some other bullet proof fabric.

"OK, now you pick out a costume for yourself, Ani!" Zoran prodded.

Astro wasn't really looking forward to this, but he wanted Zoran to be happy.

"Why don't you pick something out for me?" he asked.

"OK, I will!" Without looking, Zoran closed the book and then let it fall open to a random page. She closed her eyes and pointed her finger into the open book. "There!" she laughed.

Her finger landed on a picture of a 'Robin the boy wonder' costume.

"Now that is sure serendipity!" the store shop operator replied. He used the tape measure on Astro and then punched the necessary codes into the computer. Once again the machinery started up and spat forth a brown paper wrapped package in a few seconds.  
"This one was also off the rack." He said. "It's almost like they were just here waiting for you!"

At Zoran's instance Astro tried on the Robin outfit. Both Zoran and the shop owner gave forth low whistles as Astro the boy wonder emerged from the changing booth. The costume couldn't have fit better. It also was of very high quality, constructed of the same mysterious fabric.

The robotic siblings changed back into their street clothes, and the store manager told them that the costume rental for the convention period on these will be $250, each. Astro paid the man in cash, from the spending money that Dr. O'Shay had given him. Zoran and Astro then took the costumes upstairs to their hotel room for the next day's party. They were both looking forward to it, even Astro had had a mood change.

* * *

**Pinoko **flipped through the pages of the breakfast menu for the tenth time.  
"I don't see anything I like" she complained.

Blackjack sipped his black tea with honey and nibbled on his toast and jam.

"Just order some cereal and milk." He suggested. "It's only breakfast. We'll look for a Japanese restaurant later and get you something familiar. There are plenty of restaurants in this city."

"OK" Pinoko sighed.

The waiter brought her a bowl of Frosted Flakes and a cup of milk. She slowly spooned the sugar coated cereal into her mouth.

"Somebody from the Wayne Foundation will call on us tomorrow." Blackjack told her. "Today we have for ourselves."

"Can we go to that other convention in the hotel?" Pinoko asked.

"You mean the manga convention?" Blackjack asked.

"Yeah. I want to maybe buy some Dōjinshi's."

"You can always do that at home you know."

"Well, they might have some here in American that I've never seen before." Pinoko replied.

They got a day pass to enter the vendor area. Pinoko browsed the Dōjinshi market and bought herself a copy of one titled 風になる by an artist going by the name of 國怡 (Kuo-Yi).

**They** left the convention area around one o'clock to look for a restaurant. Blackjack used his smart phone to locate a Japanese restaurant a few blocks uptown. It was a small family owned restaurant, in the shadow of the 4th Avenue El. The Gotham Elevated railway ran on a half hour headway at this time of day, and they could hear the rumble of the train overhead as they walked into the eatery. They quickly found a table, and a short elderly man with a balding head, and a large white mustache walked up to take their order. Blackjack ordered a simple meal of お茶漬け, for himself. Pinoko settled on  
エビの天ぷら. They returned to the hotel after their lunch, where Blackjack found a message waiting for him. It contained instructions for the next day's meeting with his prospective employer for the work that he was accepting.

The Wayne foundation seminars were interesting, but Dr. O'Shay couldn't quite understand why he and Reno were even there. True, the meetings with the robotics experts wasn't scheduled until the next day in the penthouse suite, but the meetings in the main lobby had nothing to do with the expertise of the Ministry. In fact, although his name was on the guest list, nobody from the foundation recalled inviting him. Of course, Bruce Wayne himself never appeared in any of the meetings, although he was seen walking through the site early in the morning. Mr. Wayne shook a few hands, said hello to a few guests, and appeared during the lunch hour long enough to have a cup of tea. Then he was gone for the rest of the day.

* * *

**Bruce Wayne **returned to Wayne Manor after lunch at the convention center and found Alfred waiting for him.  
"Well, I made my token appearance at the Foundation seminars." Bruce told him. "It seems to be running smoothly and I was hardly even noticed."

"Very well, Mister Wayne." Alfred said. "Did you notice the document I left for you?"

"Yes, I did, though I have not had the time to read it yet."

"I think you should." Alfred replied. "You actually did a rather good job of research over the last few days. It's too bad your mind hasn't been sharp enough to put the puzzle pieces together, but you did mange to find all the pieces."

Bruce, picked up the thick pile of paper that had come out of the printer. It was a double spaced, single side printed Word document, formated in a large dark font.  
"I'm not that far sighted." Bruce laughed.

"We both need our reading glasses these days." Alfred jabbed at him.

"Touché!" Bruce replied. He picked up the document and began to read.

"I found all of this myself and didn't notice the connections?" He asked.

"You weren't in the right frame of mind, sir." Alfred replied. "You probably still aren't"

"Well, it appears that the Joker doesn't have much longer to live." Bruce said. "He's terminally ill from the toxic poisons that disfigured him so many years ago. I'm sure he blames me for that accident, probably why Robin was murdered." He then added with a sob, "in my place."

"Several doctors gave their lives to produce that diagnosis." Alfred added.

"Yes, the Joker is famous for killing the messenger of bad news." Bruce said. "Good news as well." Alfred added.

"Our missing scientist, one Albert Tenamann, was trying to develop ways of connecting the human mind to computers, directly. He also had this theory about being able to download a person's memories and brain program to a robotic A.I." Bruce continued. "If you think about that, it almost amounts to transferring a persons soul from his body, to another."

"Go on." Alfred prodded.

"It seems that I actually did find a charted flight from Gotham to Japan and back, that fits the exact time period in which the Joker broke free from his observation by the FBI stakeout. There was also mention in a few of the Japanese news services of the breakout from prison of a Doctor Tenma, a noted robotics scientist." Bruce added. "Tenma was the mad man behind a robot rebellion in the Metro City area a few years ago. You see, I had good reasons for the foundation to not support robotics research."

"I think you've been throwing the baby out with the bathwater on that one." Alfred quipped back.

"Maybe. But it will take a lot to convince me otherwise!" Bruce replied.

"Why would the Joker break Tenma out of jail?" Bruce asked. "It seems that the police recaptured him the next day a few miles away inside of the abandoned house where he once lived."

"Yes, so we know that the Joker didn't want Tenma, but he needed something from him." Alfred said.

"You sure you're not a detective?" Bruce asked his butler.

"I'm not, but I've been hanging around a very good one all these years." Alfred replied. "Keep reading you actually did find the answer."

"OK." Bruce said turning the page.

"This document has the proceedings from Tenma's interrogation following his arrest after the robot rebellion was quelled. It's a long document."

"I've highlighted the important parts."

"Yes, here it is." Bruce read, "Tenma left some notes about plans and devices he'd been working on. There is mention of a super robot with over two million horse power that was more powerful than Pluto and Atlas combined. Those two robots were constructed during Tenma's reign of terror following his descent into madness following the death of his son. The body of that super robot was never found, and the police hoped that it was never actually built. They never found anything more than the plans to it, and those were destroyed."

"You're leaving out one other robot that he built." Alfred said.

"Yes, I know." Bruce admitted. "Astro is the only good example of robotics that I can think of. If it weren't for Dr O'Shay, well I would be having the foundation campaigning for the outlawing of all self aware robotic A.I., baby, bathwater, or not."

"One more item." Alfred added.

Bruce turned the page. "The schedule for the foundation seminars, and the guest list."

"Read it carefully."

"Wait, I didn't invite Dr. O'Shay. And there are several extra events without a venue listed on the schedule." Bruce questioned.

"I think we've been hacked." Alfred explained.

Bruce picked up the phone and dialed.

"Call me back on the secure line." he ordered to the voice on the other end.

The phone rang, and Bruce punched in the second line.

"Hello Bob? Yes this is Bruce. It looks like someone has hacked into the foundation's mainframe. I need you guys to run a trace and find any hidden files. I need to know ASAP what kind of spoofing we've been subject to. I don't care how long you have to spend at this, or how many programmers you need to put on it. Just make sure that only the most trusted personal know about this. No, I can't tell you what's going on, but it is a matter of life and death."

Bruce hung up the phone.

"Mr. Levinson, I presume" Alfred asked.

"Yes. If anyone can get to the bottom of this, he can."


	5. Batman and Tetsuwan Robin

**The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn **

_Part Five: Batman and Tetsuwan Robin_

**A man** in a dark wool suit met Blackjack in the hotel lobby. He had a thin stubble of beard and small close set eyes. He glanced down at a small card and back up at the doctor.

"You Dr. Blackjack?" he asked.

"Yes that's me, although you have me at a disadvantage."

"I've been sent by Da Wayne Foundation to come get'cha" he replied. "They didn't tell me nothing about some kid though" he added looking down at Pinoko.

The man's appearance was more like an underworld thug than that of an employee of the Wayne Foundation. Blackjack had worked for members of the underworld before, so he decided to proceed with the meeting, but be on his guard for a double cross. He would however, not put Pinoko at risk. "Why don't you stay here and hang around the convention?" Blackjack said, pushing Pinoko aside. "I think Zoran is in the room next door to ours."

"Humph!" Pinoko replied, and she shuffled off to the elevator.

"This way, a car is waiting." the man said. Blackjack left the hotel and followed the man. Blackjack kept alert and was glad that he was well armed with a pocket full of razor sharp scalpels.

It was a late model black German luxury car, and it had livery plates. They drove across the city and stopped at what appeared to be a shopping mall that had gone out of business. The car entered a two story garage and came to a stop deep inside the lower level.

"This way" was all the man said. Blackjack followed him into an elevator which descended several levels before coming to a stop. The door opened to reveal a well lit hallway with recently painted walls that still smelled faintly of paint. A familiar looking man in a white lab coat greeted Blackjack and offered him his hand.

"I'm glad you accepted my offer, Kūro." he said. "We need to talk in private" he added, waving the driver away. They entered a well lit laboratory room and shut the door.

"I'm not sure if the room is bugged, but I need your help" the man in the white coat whispered.

"Dr. Tenamann?" Blackjack asked.

"Yes, I see you do remember me." Tenamann said. "I'm being kept here as a prisoner by a criminal known as the Joker. He is giving me an opportunity to finish the research that we started years ago. If it works, the benefits to neural medicine would be enormous, so I agreed to help him. But, I need your surgical skills to implant the electrodes in the brain."

"What does the Joker get out of this?" Blackjack asked.

"The Joker is the patient." Tenamann replied. I'm going to download his brain program into an A.I. enabled processor in a robotic body that the Joker claims he already has. He's supposed to bring a robotic engineer to bring this robot body on line for me to perform the transference. The Joker is dying and he thinks this is his only chance to survive."

"I should examine him." Blackjack said. "I might be able to cure him."

"I thought of that." Tenamann said. "I even mentioned it to the Joker. His response was "_I've been told that by a few other doctors. Their rotting corpses are now in the Gotham land fill._" You still want to try that?"

* * *

**Pinoko **knocked on the door to suite 1008. She didn't recognize the person that opened the door, but a familiar voice from the back of the room asked "Who's at the door, Zoran?"

"It's Pinoko!" she yelled back.

"Zoran?" Pinoko replied.

"Sorry! I'm wearing my Bat-Girl costume for the Cosplay party." Zoran said.

"Gee, I don't have a costume. I wanted to go to the convention with you." Pinoko sniffled. "Sensei left me here alone cause the guy from the Foundation didn't want me to come."

Astro had his Robin costume on, except for the mask. "We'll stop at the costume shop and see if there is something left for you." He promised.

"OK, gee, thanks!" Pinoko replied.

The three of them took the elevator down to the convention main level. They returned to the costume shop to look for something for Pinoko. There was already a line, but when the store operator saw Zoran and Atom he waved them to the front.  
"Something wrong?" he asked.

"No, we just need another costume for a friend." Zoran replied.

The shop owner applied the tape measure to Pinoko and entered her measurements into the computer.  
"Let me see if I get a match on anything that won't require adjustments." he suggested.  
"Ah ha! You're in luck." He swung the screen around and let Pinoko take a look. It was a Princess Knight outfit.  
"This one was returned early this morning. Someone changed their mind. What do you think?"

"I'll take it!" Pinoko smiled. "I love Sapphire!"

"How much for the rental?" Zoran asked.

"Forget it!" the shop owner replied. "It has a small stain on it, and I couldn't rent it out. It looks good on your friend, and you paid enough for yours so let's call it a bonus."

"Thanks!" Pinoko said.

The party was just starting, and the three friends walked quickly to the convention center.

* * *

**Dr. O'Shay and Reno **took the elevator up to the penthouse level. The room was vacant, except for a few tables with some wine and cheese, cake, and sandwiches. An easel was propped up with a note attached:

_Dr. O'Shay:_

_Please excuse my tardiness. I do intend to meet with you personally, however my schedule is not my own. Please enjoy some refreshments, I will be with you shortly._

_Bruce Wayne. _

* * *

**The secure **line from the Wayne foundation computer center rang and Bruce picked it up.

"We found it Mister Wayne" Robert Levinson replied. "It appears someone piggy backed their own communications on top of ours. Correspondence was directed to a Dr. O'Shay and he was led to believe that it was from you and the foundation. In addition, someone seems to have rented out the penthouse in the Hotel United States in the foundation's name. We may have even paid for it without knowing since it was tacked onto the existing hotel bill for the seminar."

"Dr. O'Shay?" Bruce wondered. "The Joker must be trying to kidnap him as well. He's the missing piece to the puzzle, and I don't like how the pieces are fitting together!"

"So now what?" Alfred asked.

"I think it's time for Batman to make an appearance at the hotel and stop this plot!" Bruce called out as he ran to the secret entrance to the Batcave.

* * *

**The penthouse ** suite at the hotel occupied the entire top floor. Attached to one side was a small heliport for the private use of well heeled guests with their own aircraft. A small rotary wing aircraft landed just outside the room, in earshot of O'Shay and Reno.

"I guess Mr. Wayne likes to make a big entrance" Reno said.

Suddenly, two thug like men entered the room, accompanied by another man wearing a green and pink suit. This individual had a pure white face with a his mouth was outlined with vivid red lipstick.

"I'm sorry that Mr. Wayne couldn't make it. I'm here in his place." The Joker said. "My flying carpet awaits us" he added, pointing to the helicopter.

"I don't know who you are, but we are not going with you!" O'Shay said. "Reno, make a run for it!"

The boy started for the door, but the Joker pulled a blowgun from his vest pocket, brought it to his lips and blew. A small dart hit Reno in the neck, and he staggered for a moment and fell. Reno's cell phone fell from his pocket and skidded across the floor.

While the Joker was busy with Reno, O'Shay reached into his pocket and activated a transmitter that operated on a frequency that only Astro could hear.

"Now you'll have to carry him!" The Joker told O'Shay. "Or I could throw him off the roof!"

The joker motioned to one of his men, who attached a small device to the door of the penthouse.

"A little booby trap for anyone that tries to enter" the Joker explained.

O'Shay carried Reno at gunpoint into the back seat of the waiting Helicopter. One of the armed men sat between Reno and O'Shay, the Joker took the pilot's seat, with the other henchman beside him.

* * *

**The Batmobile **roared though downtown Gotham and screeched to a stop in front of the Hotel United States. Batman ran into the building and took to the central staircase in the building's core. It was a spiral type staircase with a clear view from the ground up to the roof. Batman fired a Bat-grapple upwards and the hook impaled itself on the top level of the building. He then activated the rewind motor and flew upward to the top of the stair case. Once on the Penthouse level he quickly found the door to the room where he believed O'Shay was being held captive.

**Astro, Zoran, **and Pinoke were in the convention center in costume when Astro suddenly felt a ringing in his head. He quickly realized that it was Dr. O'Shay's emergency pager, and he saw the doctor's location on the penthouse level on his heads up display.

"Excuse me." Astro replied. "The doctor is calling me!"

**Astro** ran outside and jumped skyward. To the crowd on the street, it looked like the boy wonder was flying outside of the building. Astro smashed his way into the side of the building and entered the hallway leading to the penthouse door. He arrived there at the same instant that the caped crusader did.

**Batman** froze for an instant at the sight of what appeared to be a younger version of his dead companion. "Who the hell are you!" he asked. "and what are you doing here?"

"Dr. O'Shay is in trouble!" Astro replied. He yanked his mask off so Batman might recognize him. "I'm Astro Boy the robot! I was in the Cosplay party downstairs with friends, that's why I'm dressed like this!"

"Oh!" Batman said as he tried the door to the penthouse.

Astro had already examined the door, looking through it with his heat sensitive vision.  
"NO!" he pushed Batman away. "It's booby trapped with a bomb!"

Astro fell on top of Batman just as the device detonated, his body protected the caped crusader from the flying shrapnel. The blast blew out the side of the building and the wind sucked them both outside. Batman was falling to the ground, he fired his bat grapple, but the hook missed the building. He quickly tried to reload but the ground was coming up fast. Astro was faster. He caught the caped crusader in mid air, and carried him back to the roof.

Once back on top of the building they entered the remains of the penthouse. O'Shay's emergency transmitter was still lying on the floor along with Reno's phone. The skid marks of the Helicopter were still fresh on the helipad outside.

"It looks like we are a few moments too late." Batman said.

Astro scanned the skies with his telescopic vision. He saw a small helicopter flying away, and he could make out Dr. O'Shay's face though one of the windows.

"Maybe not!" he yelled, and blasted off to follow the aircraft. The helicopter was a few miles away by then, traveling at maybe 120 mph. Astro quickly attained Mach 1. He had thoughts of yanking Reno and O'Shay out of the aircraft and then letting the 'coper crash, but he pushed them out of his mind. Besides being against his programming, it was too risky, his friends might get shot. Astro slowed down and stayed behind the helicopter, just keeping it in sight.

The 'copter dove down and flew between the skyscrapers. Astro sighed, he'd been spotted. A flock of pigeons got between him and the helicopter and Astro had to take evasive action to avoid hitting them. He scanned the sky looking for the aircraft but couldn't find it. It had already landed somewhere.

**The Joker** saw the flying boy wonder out of the corner of his eye. He didn't know what it was, but he knew it was after him. Joker was a good pilot and he decided that a little game of chicken with the skyscrapers was in order. It was his good luck to spot the pigeon coop hanging off of the roof on one of the shorter buildings, he buzzed it and scared the birds away, into Astro's path. While the boy robot was avoiding the feathered flock, Joker flew downwards and into the lower level of the mall parking lot. He quickly shut down the engine and let the machine drop onto its skids.

"OK, we're home!" He told O'Shay. "Get going!"

The Joker motioned to his two henchmen to take O'Shay and the now groggy, but awake Reno into the abandoned mall building. He leaned into the cockpit of the helicopter, and activated the autopilot. The Joker closed the door on the aircraft and ran quickly into the building. The helicopter started up on its own and flew out of the parking lot. It followed a locked in course, crash landing in the Gotham river.

* * *

**Astro** flew back to the hotel and landed on the helipad where Batman was waiting.  
"I lost, them" Astro sighed his head hanging low.

"Don't blame yourself kid, the Joker is very crafty." Batman said. "Do you know exactly whereabouts you lost him?"

"Yes, I do." Astro said.

"Good, I've got some resources of my own. Come with me, my car is parked in the street below us."

"OK, hang on to me, and we'll take the express elevator downstairs!" Astro said. Batman put his right arm over Astro's right shoulder, and Astro grabbed the caped crusader around his waist and the two of them leap off the roof. Astro made a vertical descent, and landed them inside the Batmobile. While Batman drove though the crowded streets of downtown Gotham, heading for the outskirts of the Wayne Estate, and the Batcave, Astro made a mental connection with his sister. Zoran and Astro were linked via their A.I.'s and could share each other's thoughts from a distance. Astro let Zoran know what had happened and where he was going. He also told her to sit tight and stay with Pinoko.

They entered the Batcave and Batman parked the Batmobile and shut down the vehicle's jet engine. Astro looked at the caped crusader. '"I know who you are, Batman, and your secret is safe with me."

"How?" Batman asked.

"I can see the heat signature of your face through your mask, Mr. Wayne" Astro said.

Bruce Wayne removed his cowl and stared at Astro, who removed his Robin mask as well.  
"OK, we'll work together on this. Where were you flying when you lost the 'copter.?" He asked.

Astro opened his chest panel and pointed to a LAN jack. "Plug me into the Bat-computer and I'll upload the video of my flight." He said.

Batman watched the high speed chase after the helicopter though Astro's eyes. He almost flinched when the flock of pigeons appeared, but had the bat-computer lock in on the image of the escaping aircraft. The computer pulled back and enlarged an image of a satellite map view, and superimposed Astro's flight video on top of it. There was only a 10 square block area where the aircraft could have got to in the available time frame, given its top speed. Bruce programmed the computer to search for all likely hiding places from the city database.

"Good work, Astro." Batman said. "The Bat-computer should be able to come up with the answer within the hour."

Astro removed the cable from his internal LAN and closed his chest panel. He looked up at Mr. Wayne and saw tears flowing from his eyes.

"What's the matter Mr. Wayne? Is it something I did?" Astro asked.

"No." Bruce sighed. "It's just that seeing you in that costume reminds me of Jason. It's been just over a week since the Joker brutally murdered him. I guess, I haven't gotten over that yet."


	6. Catch me if you can!

**The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn **

_Part Six: Catch me if you can!_

**The Joker** pushed Dr. O'Shay and Reno into a well lit room at the end of the hall. It was a well equipped Robotics laboratory with computers, power monitors, and tools. Lying on a well lit operating table in the middle of the room lay an inert robot body. Just a bit over five feet tall, well polished and clean. The robot's chest panel was open, revealing the power and programming connectors. All it needed was to have it's A.I. downloaded, and to be powered.

"Get to work!" the Joker ordered. I want this robot on line and ready to be programmed by the end of the day.

Dr. O'Shay immediately recognized the robot as Tenma's work. He had no desire to put this mad man's mind into that body.  
"You're crazy if you think I'm going to help you, Joker." O'Shay said defiantly.

"We'll soon see about that" The Joker replied. He walked over to an intercom panel on the wall and pressed a button. "Get Dr's Tenamann and Blackjack in here at once!"

Within minutes, the door opened and a rough looking man in a wool suit escorted Tenamann and BlackJack into the room.

"Hail, hail, the gang's all here!" the Joker laughed. "I assumed that I might have to resort to some adjustments in your loyalties, and since my life will be in all of your hands, I am going to resort to some drastic measures."

The Joker snapped his fingers and one of his henchmen handed him a box, which the Joker opened. He extracted what looked like a metal collar and grabbing O'Shay by his nose pulled him close while snapping the metal ring around his neck.

"I hope it doesn't fit too tightly doctor, I really don't want to cut off the circulation to your brain." He said. "That really wouldn't do at all!"

Doctor O'Shay fingered the metal collar he now wore. The Joker could see that it fit loosely and was not causing the doctor any physical discomfort, although he clearly didn't like it.

"Each of you will be wearing one of these fashion statements while you are in my employ." The Joker laughed. He snapped his fingers again, and his henchmen fitted Dr. Blackjack, Dr. Tenamann, and Reno with the same neck band. "These devices have several interesting features. They contain a small shaped explosive charge, which were I to detonate, would have the same effect on you as a guillotine. They also contain a device that can activate certain nerve endings in the pain receptors of your brain. I think I will demonstrate that on you, Doctor O'Shay!"

The Joker removed a small transmitter from his pocket and pressed a button. Dr. O'Shay suddenly doubled over in pain. He could feel his skin burning from his body, and could see the flesh on his arms blister, and start to peel away down to the bone. O'Shay could hear himself screaming in pain and begging for the torture to stop. The Joker pressed the button again, and the sensation of pain ceased. O'Shay looked at his arm and saw that it was untouched. Where moments ago his flesh had burned away, there wasn't even a mark.

"As you now surmise Doctor, the device doesn't actually cause any real damage." The Joker explained "The pain is totally in your mind. It is, however quite real. Were I to increase the intensity enough, I could cause you to go into shock and die. I can cause you, or any of your associates the same discomfort any time I want. If somehow you're thinking of self sacrifice I can always force you to watch Reno suffer. Think about that before you decide not to do as I ask."

Dr. O'Shay growled with anger.

"Oh one more little thing." The Joker pulled up his shirt to reveal a device connected to several electrodes stuck to his skin with tape. "This monitor keeps track of my EKG and EEG. Were my body to suddenly stop living those explosives I mentioned earlier will go off and separate your heads from your bodies. I will have to personally deactivate those little collars before they can be safely removed, and I won't do that until my soul is inside that robot body that Dr. O'Shay is going to activate. Now get to work before I loose my patience!"

The joker started to laugh as he walked out of the room leaving the scientists horrified.

* * *

**Batman** picked up the intercom phone and pressed the call button.  
"Alfred, would you mind getting the car and picking up two young ladies from the Hotel United States?"

After hanging up the phone, he spoke to Astro.  
"I know that you and your sister have some sort of telepathic link via your AI. Please contact her, and tell her and her friend to meet my driver outside the hotel. My butler Alfred will bring them directly here, where they will be safe. I fear that the Joker might try to kidnap them to obtain some influence over Dr. O'Shay or Dr. Blackjack."

Within the half hour, Bruce Wayne's late model Rolls Royce Phantom stretched sedan arrived outside of the hotel. Alfred greeted Zoran and Pinoko, who were still wearing their cosplay costumes. He made them comfortable in the rear of the automobile, and they were soon on their way to the grounds of the Wayne Estate, and the Batcave.

While the girls were in route, the Batcomputer completed its work.  
"It seems that there are seven or eight places that one could land a helicopter where it would have been hidden from view." Batman told Astro.

"Then all I have to do is to fly by each one and look for the helicopter to find where the Joker's hideout is located." Astro said.

"I'm afraid it won't be that easy." Batman told him. "I'm certain that the Joker would have been smart enough to get rid of the aircraft as soon as he arrived at his destination. If you do find the helicopter, it will be a diversion. At least we know in what area the Joker has probably hidden our scientists. I've already contacted the Gotham police and started another computer search. There are other ways to locate him."

"I still want to do something." Astro said.

"The Batcomputer is now looking for tie-ins to the Gotham power grid. If the Joker is stealing current from Gotham Edison, we may find him when they attempt to power up Dr. Tenma's robot body ." Batman said.

* * *

**Reno **assisted Dr. O'Shay in getting Tenma's robotic body on line.  
"I don't understand how you can go along with that mad man." Reno complained.

"I don't want to, but at the moment it appears that he holds the upper hand." O'Shay sighed. "He could kill us in an instant by just pressing a button. I don't care about myself, but I won't be responsible for your death. Besides, your knowledge of robotics may be the best hope in defeating him later on."

Reno watched as O'Shay began the task of initializing the basic A.I. functions, in preparation for Tenamann to download the Joker's brain program into the robot. He quickly saw what O'Shay was trying to do.

"You're setting up a symbiotic link, aren't you?" Reno asked.

"It's the only ace in the hole that we have." O'Shay told him. "All A.I. robots can interconnect to communicate with each other over common links. There are several cypher codes that can be set up for such purposes. Astro and Zoran share such a link, and there is another code which is shared by Astro and Cobalt. Those links are usually two way, but I've broken all of the outbound command links in this robot's A.I. I've enabled only a single code link, Astro will be able to plant suggestions into this robot's A.I., and he will be able to read its thoughts. Astro will have the advantage of knowing what the Joker-bot is going to do, and where it is at all times. Zoran shares the same code link, so she will have that ability too."

"The Joker will never be aware of that, will he?" Reno asked.

"No, he shouldn't." O'Shay said. "At least I hope so. This electronic brain is the most advanced I've ever worked on. Dr. Tenma outdid himself on this."

* * *

**The Joker** entered the laboratory, and found Dr. Tenamann and Dr. Blackjack waiting for him.  
"I assume that you gentlemen are ready to attempt the transference?" he asked.

"I want to examine you first." Blackjack told him. "I may be able to cure you of your toxic poisoning."

"We've been over that before." The Joker told him "You will proceed with the transference, or would you rather experience pain?" He held up the controller for the collars.

"Your brain is deteriorating as we speak, Mr. Joker," Blackjack reminded him. "At least let me take a blood sample and run a toxicology screen so I can prepare a serum to slow the process. Or would you rather the transference fail because your EEG levels drop too low?"

"Point taken, Doctor." The Joker agreed. "You may proceed."

Blackjack drew several tubes of blood from the Joker's arm. He used the gas chromatography equipment that Tenamann had requested to analyze the Joker's blood serum. Finally, Blackjack used his extensive pharmacology knowledge to mix up a suitable antidote for most of the poisons that were slowly killing the clown prince of crime. Blackjack inserted an IV needle in the Joker's arm and connected a saline solution bag, and then pushed his antidote into that.

"This should start to take effect almost at once." He explained. "We can now prep for the transference procedure."

* * *

**Dr. Tenamann **had his equipment ready and waiting. The computer interface would be connected to the Joker's brain via a number of implanted electrodes sitting on the surface of the brain. Dr. Blackjack would have to drill several holes into the Joker's skull and insert the electrodes using a special surgical tool that would gently set each one in place. Each electrode would contact several areas of the brain. They would use a cat-scan and an MRI machine to locate the attachment points.

It took all afternoon to map the Joker's brain. Dr. Tenamann used the MRI to map the areas that had the desired activity, and verified the actual locations with the cat-scan. By the end of the day, the Joker's scalp was covered in several colors of dry-mark ink, indicating the exact areas where the holes needed to be drilled.

"**OK, **Mr. Joker, we are ready." Blackjack said. "It's time for you to lie down on the operating table. I will be giving you a local anesthesia, so you won't feel me making the openings in your skull for the electrodes. You will remain conscious while I insert the wires, the brain cannot feel any physical pain, however I have no idea what effect the computer equipment will have on you."

"I won't be transferring your consciousness into the robot," Dr. Tenamann explained, "we will actually be making a copy."

"You mean there will be two of me?" the Joker asked. "Now THAT won't do at all!"

"I can leave your biological self in a state of near coma after the transference is complete," Blackjack said.

"Yes, that's the ticket." The Joker decided. "Once I inhabit that metal body I won't have any need for flesh and blood."

**Dr. Blackjack **finished inserting the last of the electrodes under the Jokers skull.  
"Check your equipment, Albert." he said.

Dr. Tenamann activated the computer procedures to begin the transference. A bar graph on one computer screen showed the percentage of data transferred. Over in the adjacent laboratory Dr. O'Shay and Reno were looking at a similar display as the robot's A.I. began to take shape, their computers combining the programming already in place with the brain program and memory data now being transmitted from Tenamann's equipment. Finally the download was completed.

**Reno** and O'Shay were ready to power up the robot body now that the download from Tenamann's equipment was completed. This would require an injection of a several tens's of megawatts of electrical power to jump start the the robot's atomic power plant.

"It looks like the power lines from the city grid leading into this old Mall are nearly adequate for the task." O'Shay said. "With any luck, we will be cause enough of a drain on the grid to give away our position to the authorities."

"I wonder if the Joker has considered that?" Reno wondered.

Reno and O'Shay cranked up the energy. The lights in the mall dimmed, as O'Shay diverted the outside power into the robot. The Joker's mind inside of Dr. Tenma's robotic body awoke. He struggled to get up off the operating table, and slowly swung his feet over to the floor. He looked at his hands and down at his feet.  
"Amazing!" he said, delighted to hear the sound of his own voice.

**The robot** Joker slowly walked though the hallway and entered the operating room where his human body lay comatose on the table. Joker removed a device from the pocket of his former self and laughed. The three doctors, and Reno huddled together as the Joker tossed the gizmo to the boy.

"I've started a little countdown clock on that remote control." The Joker laughed. "You'll notice there are seven buttons and three lights on there, in addition to that timer display, now counting down. When that timer reaches zero it's all over. If you want to free yourselves from those explosive collars, you have until then to press one of those seven buttons. Which one? The clue is in the pattern of those blinking lights, or not!" Once the counter reaches zero, it's all over. Press the wrong button, and you will all lose your heads!

The robot Joker and his henchmen left the building, locking the doors behind them. Reno, O'Shay, Blackjack, and Tenamann stared at the red numbers, counting down on the remote control now just minutes from zero. The three lamps flashed on and off, in a repeating pattern.

* * *

**A buzzer** sounded in the Batcave, as the Batcomputer pinpointed the location of a significant power drain from the Gotham city grid. The location appeared on a computer screen.

"That's right in the middle of the search area near the old abandoned Gotham Mall!" Batman said. "Let's get to the Batmobile!"

**Batman** and Astro made it quickly to the site of the old Gotham Mall. Astro used his super hearing to locate where in the building to go. As they came to a locked room, Astro could hear O'Shay and Reno talking though the door. He forced the door open to find the four captives huddled around the blinking device in Reno's hand.

"We've only got sixty seconds left!" O'Shay asked "Which button is it?"

"I don't know!" Reno cried. "This doesn't make sense."

Astro looked at the device.

"The Joker said that this device will disarm the explosive collars on our necks, and that the clue was in the pattern of the blinking lights, or not" Reno said. "Those three lights have flashed in every possible combination, in the same order. I don't see the clue."

"Why don't I just cut them off with my Laser?" Astro suggested.

"No, that might detonate the explosives." Batman replied.

Astro and the Caped Crusader watched the lights blink. Every third of a second a different combination of lights was lit. The same sequence repeated itself again and again.

"I think it's a sequence of binary numbers." Reno said. "But there isn't any combination missing. One through seven, and there are seven buttons."

"No, there is a combination missing." Astro said. "There is a binary number not present in the sequence."

"I don't see it" Reno said.

"The number zero is missing." Astro explained.

"But there are seven buttons, labeled one though seven." Reno said. "There is no zero. Unless?"

The timer was seconds away from zero.

"We've got to try something!" O'Shay yelled.

"No!" Astro said. "Just wait!"

The counter reached zero. Nothing happened. "CLICK!" "CLICK!" "CLICK!" "CLICK!"

Each of the metal collars snapped open. Astro quickly yanked them from around his friend's necks, and threw them into the hallway, where they vaporized into a cloud of smoke.

"The Joker wanted you to press a button in desperation and seal your own doom" Batman said. "He hoped you'd panic when the clock was about to run out. That was a good bit of logical reasoning, Astro."

* * *

"**We** should all return to the Batcave" Batman said. "With Dr. Tenma's robot on the loose with the Jokers mind aboard, I'm going to need all the help I can get!"

"When you get there, send an ambulance back here for me and the Joker's human body." Blackjack suggested. "I'll stay here with him until then."

"Very well." Batman agreed.

"You can take Dr. Tenamann and Dr. O'Shay back with you in the Batmobile" Astro said. "I'll fly back there with Reno."


	7. Someone must pay the price

**The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn **

_Part Seven: Someone must pay the price_

**Mention **the Batcave, and one conjurers up an image of the dark and damp mysterious lair of the caped crusader, filled with flying rodents and spiders. In actual fact, Batman's headquarters is a large underground complex filled with high tech equipment, laboratories, medical facilities, jail cells and sleeping quarters. It has a large garage filled with various sorts of vehicles (including the famous batmobile), and an aircraft hangar with equally fantastic flying machines. The entire facility is devoted to the support of law enforcement, and disaster preparation. The entire complex lies deep underground beneath stately Wayne Manor and it's outlying property. Part of the Batcave was once a natural cavern, it was enlarged, waterproofed, and sured up to accommodate the needs of the caped crusader.

The main entrance to the Batcave was carved through the solid granite of the hillside upon which the Wayne Estate sits, by tunnel boring machines. The roadway leading to the Batcave's entrance snakes away from a two lane state highway and is mostly hidden by huge outcroppings of rock, trees, and various bits of camouflage. The entrance itself is hidden behind a large steel door decorated to be indistinguishable from the side of the cliff it sits in front of. The door is so well balanced, that when unlocked, can be slide open or closed by a mere touch of a finger. The door is operated by an electronic controller that automatically opens it when the Batmobile is leaving the cave, or when triggered by a coded radio signal when the Batmobile is returning.

There is a separate entrance to the hangar leading to a hidden airstrip behind the Wayne Estate. Another entrance leads in from a rundown piece of property just off the state highway. And, of course, there is the secret elevator between the Batcave and Wayne Manor.

* * *

**With the arrival **of Dr. Blackjack in the ambulance the group in the Batcave was all present and accounted for. Zoran ran toward Dr. O'Shay and gave him a huge hug. She was relieved to see that he was unharmed. Pinoko similarly greeted Blackjack. The two of them had been brought to the Batcave's utilitarian entrance by Alfred.

Batman gave cast a look of disapproval and disappointment toward his adult guests. "You gentlemen are responsible for unleashing a potential terror on this city, and probably the entire world." He said. "Though I realize that you didn't have much choice in the matter, and part of the blame falls on myself as well. I failed to uncover his plot early enough to stop it. The Joker used the good name of the Wayne foundation to lure you here, I didn't catch that either. Now I need your help to neutralize this threat."

Dr. O'Shay spoke up first. "I assume you did some research on Dr. Tenma, and you know what the Joker acquired from him?"

"First of all, I don't really think that Dr. Tenma willingly gave up that robotic body." Batman said. "As for its technical specifications, I have only limited data, other than the fact that it has superhuman strength."

"That is putting it mildly." O'Shay barked. "Astro has 100,000 HP. The robotic body Tenma built has twenty times that power output."

"TWO MILLION HP?" Batman said, "It's worse than I thought!"

"We have two advantages over him." Reno replied. "One, it will hopefully take the Joker's mind a while to fully adjust to the body he is in. We will have a limited opportunity to put him out of commission before command of his full abilities are available to him. Two, Astro can connect to his AI to read his thoughts, and locate his position. We don't think that the Joker will be aware of this. We will know what he is planning, and where he is."

Astro sat down and held his head between his hands with his elbows resting on his knees. He concentrated and slowly began to form an image in his mind.

"It's working, Reno." Astro said. "It's a bit hazy now, but slowly getting clearer."

"Have you located him?" Batman asked.

"Yes, he's hiding out on a ship docked in the harbor." Astro said. "I've command his GPS to give me the coordinates."

Astro typed the data into the terminal on the Batcomputer and a map display appeared.

"Excellent!" Batman said. "That part of the dock complex is full of old buildings which block the view of the streets from the wharf. We'll be able to sneak up on him in the Batmobile, with the engines running in stealth mode."

* * *

**The Joker** and his motley crew sat in one of the cabins on an old tramp steamer. The ancient cargo ship had once been part of a merchant marine fleet carrying tea, coffee, wheat, or other such goods between ports on both sides of the Atlantic. It was now long past its prime, having made its last cargo run many months ago. It's current owner was in bankruptcy literation, and the ship would probably be heading for the scraping torch in a short while. Nobody had been on board her quite some time, she made a perfect hideout for a criminal looking for a place to operate from for a short time.

It didn't matter that the ship's engines were way out of tune and probably wouldn't run well, if at all. The Joker had no intentions of having the vessel leave the dock. A quick bit of tampering with the electrical hookups on the wharf using some stolen copper wiring from the streetlights, gave him some free power and access to the Internet.

Joker found a length of heavy chain that had separated from one of the ships broken cargo hoists. It must have weighed several hundred pounds, but he was able to lift it like it was made of balsa wood. He tried snapping one of the metal links and was able to break it like it was a pretzel, yet it was made of steel an inch and a half thick.  
"Will you get a load of me!" the Joker laughed to himself. "I wonder what else this body can do!"

"What do you have planned, boss?" The man in the wool suit asked.

"I think I will visit some of my pals in the Gotham State Pen and convince the warden to let them all out on good behavior!" The Joker laughed. "I owe the warden a visit anyway, I need to pay him back for the way he treated me. Let's get going, we'll boost us a nice car and drive over there in style!"

* * *

**Astro **and the Batman drove through the darkened streets of Gotham in the Batmobile. As they reached the docks along the Gotham river Astro concentrated on tuning in on the back door to the Joker's AI. It was a little easier the second time to make contact, and he was able to read his thoughts a little more clearly than the first time.

"He's heading for the State Prison." Astro said. "He's planning on freeing a bunch of the inmates, and I think he intends to kill the warden."

"Is he on his way there?" the caped crusader asked.

"Yes, The Joker broke into a Mercedes dealer on 11th Avenue and drove off in a high powered automobile. He's in route to the prison now." Astro reported.

Batman quickly changed directions and turned the Batmobile onto the Gotham River Parkway.

"With any luck we might barely beat him there." Batman said.

"It seems that the Joker hasn't figured out that his new robot body can fly." Astro said. "He may not be aware of the other weapons at his disposal either. The only indication I got tapping into his AI was that he is aware of his physical strength. He knows he's stronger than he was a human, but he doesn't yet know by how much."

"As Reno said, that does give us a slight edge" Batman said, "But we don't know how long that will last."

"Not very long." Astro sighed. "It didn't take me very long to discover my abilities after I was first reborn. I'd give us a day or two at the most."

* * *

**Warden O'Leary **was counting the days till his retirement. In just a few months he would be eligible for a full pension, and he didn't intend to stay on the job a day longer than necessary. He still prided himself on running a model prison, and he thought that he treated the inmates with a fair, but firm approach. The Warden sometimes stayed at a small apartment flat on the prison grounds when he worked late, and tonight was one of those times. He was in his office finishing off some paperwork for a few parole requests when an uninvited visitor kicked his door open.

"Hello Warden, remember me?"

O'Leary stared at the intruder. The voice and the jacket with the crazy color combination he did recognize, the face he did not. The Warden quickly pulled a handgun from the top drawer of his desk. He kept the nine mm pistol there for quick access in situations just like this one. He'd only had to pull it once before.  
"You've changed Joker, assuming that is you!" O'Leary stated. "Brash as usual breaking in here unarmed."

"Hardly." The Joker smiled. "This is a totally new me." He knocked his fist on his head producing a metallic 'clink'. The Joker advanced toward O'Leary, who raised the gun and took aim at the Joker's head.

"Not a good idea." The Joker explained. "You might get hit by the Ricochet." The Joker quickly grabbed the weapon by the muzzle just as O'Leary pulled the trigger. The gun exploded in the Joker's hand, and the robotic criminal then squeezed what was left of the pistol into a ball of metal which he tossed onto the Warden's desk.

"Now let's talk." The Joker laughed.

O'Leary crossed his arms and stared at the robot Joker. He knew that when he'd removed the gun from the desk drawer he had activated a silent alarm. At this very moment a group of armed guards would be on their way toward his office. He only needed to keep the Joker's attention occupied on him, and away from the door to the office.

"OK then, what's on your mind?" O'Leary asked.

"First of all some of your guests are very good friends of mine, and they'd like to leave this fine establishment. I'm here to make that request known to you, and I won't take no for an answer." Joker said. "Secondly, you owe me, and I'm here to collect payment."

It was at that moment that the office door burst open as a dozen well armed guards stormed in.

"I think not." the Warden answered. "It seems my reinforcements have arrived. I suggest you give yourself up."

The Joker slowly backed away from the Warden and walked toward the guards with his arms raised. The guards moved to surround him, and at that moment the Joker spun about. In a blur of movement, he grabbed the rifles from the policemen and bent each of them in half. He threw the weapons on the floor in a heap, and then picked each man up and threw them one by one toward the far end of the room where they lay in a heap. The far wall was now marked by blood stains where some of the guards had struck it head first.

"That was a bad move on your part!" The Joker growled at the warden. You can blame yourself for the death of any of those men, I acted in self defense."

* * *

**The **Batmobile arrived at the main entrance to the Gotham State Prison. It was clear that the Joker had arrived first, the front gate had been rammed open, and a Mercedes SLS with a badly mangled front end sat not far from it. The caped crusader and "Tetsuwan Robin" entered through the main door which lay on its side, ripped from its hinges.

"The Joker is in the Warden's office." Astro said.

"We'll have to be careful and surprise him." Batman said. "I'll take the frontal attack and just walk in on him though the door to the office. Listen carefully to what goes in and crash in though a wall at the opportune moment for the element of surprise."

"Hai!" Astro nodded.

Batman appeared at the door to the Warden's office just in time. The Joker had the Warden tied up in his office chair and had started to torture him with a sharp knife. He intended to carefully peel his skin layer by layer. He'd already started to lay raw the Warden's forehead and was about to slowly scalp him, Apache style, when he heard the caped crusader enter.

"Well, well, well." The Joker laughed. "I guess I'll be able to add your cowl to the Warden's scalp for my collection!"

"Not so fast!" Batman said.

"Really?" Joker asked. "I'm not the same petty crook you're used to tangling with. If you don't believe me, ask those guys in the back of the room." He said, pointing to the pile of bodies that had been the prison riot squad.

Batman slowly walked toward the Warden to divert the Joker's attention away from the windowed side of the room. He saw that the Warden's wounds were superficial and that the Joker's torment of him had been more fear than actual disfigurement.

"You'll recover, Sir." Batman told O'Leary.

"Watch out!" the Warden warned Batman. "This mad man has the strength of a rhino!"

**At** that moment Astro came crashing through the window. He flew towards the Joker, grabbed him, and crashed through the outside concrete wall into the prison yard.

Batman quickly ran after them, carefully stepping though the hole in the wall.

Astro slammed the Joker into the concrete ground cover of the yard. Joker-bot got up and took a few steps back.

"So it's Astro Boy-Blunder!" He snarled. "I'll give you what I gave the the previous Robin!"

Joker ran toward Astro and rammed his fist toward him. He put a huge amount of horsepower into his punch, but Astro side stepped his delivery, and countered with blow of his own that connected with the jokers torso. Astro's blow sent the joker flying backwards and he crashed through the wall of the building housing Cell-Block A.

Joker-bot came running out of the building in a rage. He ran through the exercise yard, yanking a basketball goal post out of the ground and swung it like a giant Louisville slugger. Astro ran to push Batman out of the way a fraction of a second before the Joker could have sent him over the center field fence for a home run. The Joker then manged to bring the steel post down on top of Astro, knocking the stuffing out of him.

Astro quickly came to his senses just as the Joker came running toward him again, this time using the steel pole as a jousting spear. Astro grabbed the makeshift weapon out of the Joker's hand. Now he was mad! Astro flew toward Joker-bot and grabbed him by his feet. He flew upwards to an altitude of ten thousand feet and dropped the Joker, letting him free fall. Astro followed the Joker down, waiting to relish seeing him create a crater in the concrete yard of the prison.

**Strangely** enough, the Joker didn't feel panic as he fell. He watched the ground approach him, and he saw Astro out of the corner of his eyes. At the last minute, the Joker willed himself upwards toward the boy robot. He'd discovered the jet engines in his bodies legs, and he quickly accelerated toward Astro with his right fist extended.

Astro quickly realized that the game had changed. He and the Joker engaged in aerial combat, dog fighting like the old WWI aces. Astro was able to dodge the Joker's thrusts at him, and manged to score a few hay-makers. On the ground below, Batman looked up and realized with horror that it wouldn't take long for the Joker to be in full control of the robot body. Astro had better finish him off quickly, he thought.

The same realization finally struck Astro. He didn't want to do it, his programming usually kept him from using his most powerful weapons, but it was obvious that his speed and strength were not going to be enough to stop Joker. Astro backed off as the Joker took aim and came flying at him, this time at Mach 1. Astro extended his left arm and took aim at the incoming Joker. His hand folded back into his wrist, and his arm morphed into an energy beam cannon. He fired a blast of pure energy at the Joker.

Watching from the ground, Batman saw the white hot beam emerge from Astro's left arm and envelop the robot criminal in a ball of plasma, hiding him from view.

The joker saw the beam of energy coming at him and had little time to react. He held up his hands in front of his eyes as if to shield himself from the incoming beam. Without realizing that he was doing it, the joker brought a force field on line, surrounding himself within a magnetic plasma. Astro's energy beam struck the field enveloped it. The blast of energy propelled the joker backwards, and he plummeted toward the ground. Just in time his systems came back on line, and he used his jets to stop his fall. He hovered beneath Astro, and glared up a him.

**The dust cleared **and Batman saw that Astro's energy blast had been ineffective. The Joker balled his fists at Astro as if he was about to fly back at him as a guided missile. Instead, his left hand folded back into his wrist and the arm morphed into some kind of cannon. The Joker took aim and let loose. A blue hot beam of energy flew from the Joker's arm cannon. The beam hit Astro head on.

Astro saw the incoming fire and had no time to get out of its way. He felt a momentary wave of pain, and then nothing. Astro fell toward the ground and hit the concrete of the prison yard hard. He bounced several times and came to a stop. He was seeing double, and triple images spinning. Sparks were emanating from under Astro's chest panel. Batman ran toward him, but the Joker landed in front of him.

"Keep back, Batfink!" he snarled.

Astro lay on his chest. He raised his head to see the Joker preparing to blast him again. Suddenly, Astro's twin machine guns stuck their barrels out of his hips and took aim. The guns fired at a combined rate of 1000 rounds a minute, the shells hit the joker's torso hard and knocked him to the ground before he had a chance to raise his shields.

"Now you've really got me mad!" he yelled, getting back to his feet. Joker's left arm cannon fired, sending Astro skidding across the yard, to crash into the main building of the prison. The Joker ran toward the now defenseless Astro. He picked him up and slammed him down toward the ground. Joker leaped into the air and landed a crushing blow on Astro's torso. In a state of rage, the Joker ripped Astro's limbs off, and then severed his head. He left the smoking remains of the boy robot sitting in a heap on the ground.

"Pick up this trash and get out of here!" The joker roared at Batman. "You can take the Warden with you. I've changed my mind. I've got bigger fish to fry!"

The Joker fired a few warning shots at Batman's feet. Defeated, the caped crusader left the prison and headed back to the Batcave with Astro in a body bag.


	8. Hell has no fury like a woman scorned

**The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn **

_Part Eight: __Hell has no fury like a woman scorned_

**Zoran **and Pinoko had been keeping busy by surfing the web on the Batcomputer. Dr. Blackjack and Dr. Tenamann had the Joker's comatose body hooked up to an EEG machine studying the after effects of the mind download. Dr. O'Shay stood by them watching.

Zoran was the first to hear the approach of the Batmobile entering the Batcave, and she ran toward its parking spot. She reached the Batmobile just in time to see Batman gingerly removing the body bag containing Astro, and gently carrying it into the Batcave proper.

"Ani?" Zoran cried out, not seeing her brother, and then realizing what was inside the canvas bag.

"ANI! What happened?" Zoran was able to look through Batman's cowl with her vision cranked into the infrared. She could see the look of despair and grief on Bruce Wayne's face under the mask, and she knew. Batman carried Astro's body into the largest of the Batcave's tech laboratories, and gently laid him down on the operating table. Reno and Dr. O'Shay saw him carrying Astro into the lab and followed him, with a bawling Zoran not far behind.

"He fought bravely, but that damn robot was too powerful!" Batman said, with a distinct cry in his voice. "First Jason, and now Astro! I think It's time I hung up my cape and cowl!"

Reno and Dr. O'Shay started at once to examine what remained of the boy robot. Reno quickly connected a power supply to Astro's internal backup power bus, and a network cable from the Batcomputer to his internal LAN.

"It looks like I can save his AI." Reno said. "He had enough reserve power left to keep his backup copy intact. I can upload it to the Batcomputer for safe keeping, it looks like I'll have enough disk space."

"Well that's a bit of good news." Dr. O'Shay said. "I see so much damage to Astro's internal circuitry that I doubt I'll be able to fix him without getting many custom spare parts from the Ministry."

"You can use my circuits" Zoran sobbed, elbowing Dr. O'Shay in the ribs.

"Thank you Zoran, you're such a wonderful sister!" O'Shay replied to her sweetly. "However, I'm afraid that won't work, your hardware isn't up to the required precision that Astro's systems require."

Zoran shuffled away to sit in a corner next to Pinoko whose eyes were also tearing after having seen Astro's battered body. Both of them were still dressed in their Cosplay costumes, though Zoran had stuffed the Batgirl cowl and mask into her pocket.

**Suddenly **the quiet was shattered by the distinctive ring of the Batphone. The instrument cried out and flashed with a red strobe light designed to get the Batman's undivided attention. Batman reluctantly picked up the phone to answer it.

"Yes commissioner, what can I do for you?" Batman asked. He stood there as if in a trance listening before hanging up the phone.

The three doctor's looked toward Batman upon hearing the phone ring, with looks on their faces that could only say "now what?"

"It seems that the Joker has started on a massive city wide crime wave." Batman quavered. "He's been intercepting armored trucks, and smashing his way into bank vaults. So far, he's been hitting only the largest concentrations of wealth, but the list is growing."

Batman turned on a television monitor to a news feed. The Joker had left a short video stream on the network and it was quickly going viral on the web.

"I dare Batman, the police, or even the Army to stop me!" The Joker robot laughed. "I'll make it easy for you mortals in fact, I've got this cellphone with me with the GPS enabled and I'll give you my phone number! OK Bat-Fink. Let's see you stop me! I'll take you apart like I did Astro Boy Blunder!"

**A teary **eyed Zoran looked up at the large screen TV. The sight of the robot body that Dr. Tenma had build for her brother, now dressed up in the Joker's clown suit and makeup seemed to really get to her. Zoran's bawling shifted into high gear and she ran out of the area where Batman and Dr. O'Shay had been standing.

"Zoran can be quite emotional, can't she?" Batman asked.

"You wouldn't want to see her when she's mad." Dr. O'Shay answered.

Which in fact, didn't take more than a minute. Perhaps it was the Joker's last words ringing in Zoran's ears, or the sight of Reno taking inventory of what parts of Astro were the most damaged and beyond repair. Suddenly her psyche shifted from grief and sorrow, into a burning angry rage. Her brown eyes took on a red glow, and she reemerged into the room with an angry scowl on her face that could have scared the devil himself.

"THAT BASTARD IS GOING TO PAY FOR KILLING ANI!" Zoran yelled. She pulled the Batgirl cowl and mask from her pocket and carefully pulled it over her head. "I've got a lock on his fucking AI and I'm going to smash him into atoms!"she yelled at the top of her lungs.

Batman, Reno, and Dr. O'Shay stared in disbelief at the transformed Zoran.

"HEY BATMAN!" she yelled from where the Batmobile was parked "Are you coming with me, or not?"

"Zoran!" Batman tried to calm her down. "He'll destroy you! We need an edge, we have to think this through carefully."

"Well If you're chicken, I'll do it myself!" Zoran yelled. In a fit of anger, she picked up the Batmobile and hurled it down the length of the tunnel. The black supercar came to a stop just inches from the mouth of the tunnel, resting sideways against the far wall near the steel doors of the Batcave entrance. Those outer doors opened, and Zoran started running toward the end of the tunnel, taking a leap into the air. The soles of her feet split apart and folded inward as the exhaust nozzles of jet engines appeared at the bottom of her legs. Zoran flew in ground effect toward the now open mouth of the Batcave, reaching supersonic speed as she exited the Batcave and blasted skyward. The echo of her sonic boom filled the Batcave.

"What just happened?" Batman asked. "I didn't know Zoran had Astro's powers."

"She doesn't!" Dr. O'Shay answered.

"Unless..." Reno interjected. "Remember the day she never made it to school? The same day the police caught Dr. Tenma hiding out at his old abandoned house? The same house Zoran had to walk past everyday to school. You don't suppose ….?"

Dr. O'Shay turned to Batman. "Can you use the Batcomputer to contact Dr. Tenma at the mental hospital?" he asked.

"Yes." The caped crusader answered, as he started typing on a terminal. The Batcomputer contacted an international video phone circuit, navigating the on line switches to reach the mental hospital where Dr. Tenma was being held. After a many minutes, the crafty scientist appeared on the video circuit to confront Dr. O'Shay who was standing in front of the terminal's webcam.

"I wondered when you'd get around to calling me, O'Shay!" Dr. Tenma said. "And before you ask, I did not hand that robot body over to the Joker of my own free will. I woke up inside my old laboratory to find the super robot body I had built for Astro gone. It took me some time to get my memory back, and I then realized that I had been drugged and forced to comply with the demands of a madman. I couldn't leave the world defenseless, so I had to think of something."

"What did you do!" O'Shay yelled.

"I left you with a means of defense." Tenma answered. "I knew that Astro didn't stand a chance against that robot body. It has twenty times his power, and much greater armament. There was no way I could get to Astro to upgrade him, but I could easily kidnap Zoran. You did a good job building her, O'Shay, you must have followed the blueprints I left for her fairly closely. It made my job a lot easier."

"What the hell did you do to her!" O'Shay demanded again.

"I upgraded her, O'Shay. Zoran now has every system Astro does, but at a much greater power level. She is now more than a match for the super robot body the Joker took from me. Since you're calling me, I must assume that she now knows that she is stronger than he is. She just doesn't realize how strong she is really is. Zoran now has not one, but two energy beam arm cannons. She has twice as many rounds of shells in her fanny guns that Astro did, and they are armor piercing, depleted Uranium shells to boot. Her digibeam finger lasers are more powerful that what the Joker has. She's fully shielded against EMP and laser fire, and her total power output is about twenty times what the Joker has.

"Twenty times!" O'Shay gasped. "That's Forty Million Horsepower!"

"Correct." Tenma said, as he closed the video circuit at his end.

"Holly crap!" Reno gasped. "Zoran is really loaded for bear!"

"I think I'd better find where the Joker is" Batman said. "Zoran might need some help."

"Not likely." Reno laughed. "But perhaps you'd better find them before Zoran causes some collateral damage to the city."

* * *

**Zoran's **AI locked onto the Joker though the symbiotic link that their AI's shared. She was still mad as hell and so she pushed a vision into the Joker's mind. "You're doomed Joker! Batgirl is coming!"

Batman didn't have any problem locating the Joker's location either. The cellphone link that the crafty criminal had given the police access to for the purpose of taunting them was now painting a target on the Batmobile's tracking system.

* * *

**Uptown, **the Joker walked through the halls of the Googleheim art museum. He was enjoying himself, using a can of spray paint to deface the artwork. The bodies of several Gotham policemen were lying at various places in the museum, and a swat team had take up positions at all of the exits. The Joker was about to remove a Rembrandt that he had taken a fancy to from the wall, when he suddenly felt a searing pain in his head. A voice tore threw his mind screaming at him, and he saw a vision of Batgirl glaring at him. "I'm going to tear you to bits Joker!" she cried.

Batman pulled up to the museum in the Batmobile. He noticed the Gotham police swat teams surrounding the building. The leader of the police squadron walked up to the Batmobile to speak with the caped crusader.

"I think we might have a stand off on our hands." he said. "We're waiting to see what happens next."

"What do you mean?" Batman asked.

"Batgirl just smashed her way into the museum." he said. "She tossed one of my men away from the main entrance and barged in. I think the Joker's near the top of the museum, so I don't know if the two of them have met yet."

"That's not Batgirl, and I'm going in after them!" Batman replied. He walked trough the front door and started up the winding path that lead to the top of the museum.

* * *

**The** Joker had killed the lights, burning out the circuits with a laser shot though the wall hitting the main electrical conduit. Zoran lit her eye search lights and had no trouble finding her way. Her heads up display showed the joker's position clearly superimposed on a map of the inside layout of the museum. Her subconscious mind had already started charging her arm cannons and digibeam lasers, the electronic adrenalin was already active in her computer networks. Her feet squeaked slightly as she took each step forward toward her prey.

* * *

**Batman** entered the darkened museum. He used a flashlight to light the way ahead of him. Just a few feet inside he came to the body of a wounded swat team member. He bent down to touch the body. It was still warm, and he felt a weak pulse. Batman quickly examined the man, he had a long, but shallow burn wound along his back. The Joker must have grazed him with a laser shot. Batman debated carrying the man outside, then decided to call the police and tell them to come get him. The lower floor of the museum was safe, the action would be higher up.

* * *

**The** Joker had a good idea where Batgirl was. She kept stabbing him with her jabs to his AI. He could see and hear her mental projections in his mind. She was trying to unnerve him, and it was starting to work. The joker tried to project back, but he couldn't. Dr. O'Shay's subtle hacking of his AI had been too good.

* * *

**Zoran** continued up the slope of the museum's spiral floor. She was getting close to the Joker's position, so she shut down her eye searchlights. She now navigated solely by her inertial guidance system, and by the sonar return of the sound of her own footsteps. Her highly amplified hearing and her computer brain's processor gave her an echo location ability to actually see around her by sonar, just like a bat.

The Joker slowly backed up toward the top of the spiral path. He tried to hid behind a marble statue. His hearing was good, and his eyes well well dark adapted. He could detect the wraith like apparition that was slowly approaching him.

They were now just tens of feet apart. The ghostly outline of the Joker's form was clearly visible Zoran's head's up display. The Joker could make out Zoran's outline as well. Neither one of them had a clear picture of the other, yet they both knew were each other was well enough to target a shot. Zoran's head up display outlined the Joker in her cross hairs. She aimed a digibeam laser at him and fired. The Joker also took aim with his own digibeam laser and fired. Zoran felt the laser as the beam glanced off of her. It caused no damage as her ray shielding did its job. On the other hand, Zoran's laser hit the Joker squarely between his eyes. His shielding provided some minimal protection, but he now had an unattractive burn spot where he'd been hit. Mad, and seeing that his laser was ineffective, the Joker switched to heavier artillery.

Zoran pointed both of her arms at the Joker as they morphed into cannons. The Joker had already raised his left arm with its beam weapon. Both of them fired simultaneously. Zoran's rage still burned in her brain, she didn't hold back anything. The twin blue hot beams of pure energy merged into one a few feet ahead of her. The combined beams hit the single white hot blast from the Joker's cannon just inches from where it emerged. Over powered by twenty to one, the Joker was thrown backwards by the force of the resulting concussion. He was blasted through the wall of the museum, and then two nearby office towers as well.

* * *

**Batman** heard the explosive thunder and felt the blast of hot wind heading down from upstairs. He picked up his pace and started to run. When he got to the end of the ramp, at the very top of the museum he saw a large gaping hole in the wall, and artwork scattered all around him. The Joker and Zoran were nowhere to be seen. The Caped Crusader leaped through the hole in the wall, and used his Batgrapple to attach a line to the building to rappel down to the street below.

* * *

**Zoran **had seen the Joker being blasted out of the building. She held her ground, despite the blast just a few feet away from her. Quickly she flew out of the building just in time to see her prey plummeting to the ground after emerging from the back of the second office tower he'd been thrown though by the force of her arm cannons. She zoomed down to follow him, but the Joker had finally regained control of himself and was now flying upward.

"I know I shouldn't hit a woman," the Joker laughed, "But in your exception I'll make a case!" He zoomed upward and slammed into Zoran sending her flying backwards out of control, toward a nearby skyscraper.

But not for long. Zoran quickly managed to slow herself, and now hovered in the air a few hundred yards from the Joker. Now madder than a wet hen, Zoran turned around as if to moon the Joker. The twin barrels of the two machine guns extended from her hips and started to fire. The Joker managed to dodge most of the shells, and all but one of the rest were repelled by his force field. He now had a crease in his forehead where a depleted Uranium bullet had found its mark.

Zoran saw that the machine guns had done little damage, and she quickly changed tactics.  
"Now you get yours!" She yelled. "I'm going to revenge Ani!"

At that instant, the Joker suddenly realized who was behind the Batgirl cowl, but he couldn't believe it.

Zoran balled her right hand into a fist. She took aim at the Joker's midsection, and pointed her left arm backwards. Three rocket engines, two in her legs and the one in her left arm reached full throttle and she shot forward like a bullet. The Joker's reflexes and speed were not up to the task of getting out of the way this time. His force field folded like tin foil as Zoran hit him, traveling at Mach 7.

* * *

**Batman** saw the final battle from the street. There was an expanding cloud of white hot gas in the sky where the two robots had merged, and shards of glowing hot metal were raining down on the street. For an instant, it looked like they had destroyed each other. Then Batman felt someone tapping him on his shoulder from behind. He whirled around quickly to see Batgirl smiling up at him.

"How about a ride back to the Batcave, Caped Crusader?" Zoran asked.


	9. Resurrection

**The Knight is the darkest just before the dawn **

_Part Nine: Resurrection _

**At the instant** that Zoran had vaporized the Joker robot with her kinetic energy, the Joker's human body came out of the coma that it had been in since the transference of his brain patterns into the robot's AI. Both Dr. Blackjack and Dr. Tenamann were at a loss to explain this.

"I did not remove the Joker's mind from his body, I merely mad a copy of it." Tenamann swore. "Yet his body reacted as if his brain had been removed for the past few days since then."

"It does seem like there was something preventing him from being in two places at once." Blackjack remarked. "As soon as the Robot came on line with his brain program, his human body's EEG readings went almost flat. At the instant that the robot was destroyed, the Joker's body started showing signs of normal brain activity again. It would almost seem as if he had only one soul and that it could only occupy one body at a time."

The Joker opened his eyes to find himself strapped to an operating table. He tried to break the straps holding him down and quickly realized that he was back in his human body.

"What have you done to me!" he demanded.

"Nothing." Blackjack assured him. "It seems that the transference has been broken by the destruction of your robotic alter persona. Look on the bright side. The serum I gave you has stopped the disintegration of your cells from the toxic poisoning you've been dieing from. You're going to live a long life, in prison."

The Joker growled under his breath.

* * *

**Zoran **seemed to faint as she tried to get into the Batmobile. Batman caught her as she almost fell, and helped her sit down.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"I .. I don't know." Zoran said weakly. "All of a sudden, I feel very light headed. It must be that the excitement got to me. I don't know how Ani was able to deal with that..."

She suddenly remembered her brother lying as if dead on the operating table back in the Batcave. Her mood which had shifted from anger to jubilation was now back in a grieving mode and she started crying again.

"I just utterly destroyed the bastard that killed Ani" she sobbed, "But that's not good enough. It won't bring him back!"

Batman then saw the wisdom in what Alfred had been trying to tell him after he had brought Jason's body back home. Revenge's reward tasted ashen in the mouth. They drove back to the Batcave in silence. Zoran needed help walking from the Batmobile, she was weak and unstable. Reno offered her his arm, and he walked her into the laboratory where Astro lay on the operating table. Dr. O'Shay wheeled another lab table beside the one Astro lay on. He and Reno lifted Zoran onto it, and she laid down.  
"I could use a nap" Zoran sighed and she fell asleep.

Batman entered the lab, and watched as Reno opened Zoran's chest panel to examine her insides. He gave Dr. O'Shay a worried look, and the two of them got to work.

"**I don't **believe this!" Dr. O'Shay gasped. "It's no wonder that Zoran collapsed. Dr. Tenma shoehorned some very high powered systems into her. She was able to handle the tremendous overload for a brief time, but eventually it was too much for her. I think that as long as she was able to maintain an emotional level in a state of anger her electronic brain was able to hold her systems together. In human terms, she was on an adrenaline high. As soon as that state of mind evaporated, she could no longer handle the overload."

"If we don't manage to stabilize her at a lower power level, she'll burn up!" Reno said. "Didn't Tenma put in an off switch?"

"It's clear to me that this was a rush job." O'Shay answered. "He rigged Zoran's overclocking to remain passive until she got angry. At that point the supercharging systems he implanted took over. I'm afraid we don't have much choice. We're going to have to power Zoran off, and remove Tenma's hardware. Hopefully, we'll be able to patch Zoran back together to the way she was originally.

They started dissecting Zoran's body at once. The rocket and jet engines were removed from her arms and legs along with the energy beam weapons. After two hours a small pile of the exotic hardware was stacked on a rolling cart and they began the job or reassembling Astro's sister. Reno patched her into the Batcomputer and they attempted to restart her systems. Dr. O'Shay had his fingers crossed behind his back as Reno entered the final sequence on the computer terminal.

Zoran opened her eyes and smiled. "Good morning Dr. O'Shay." she said. "Boy did I ever have a weird dream!"

She turned and saw her brother lying on the table next to her. Astro's arms, legs, and his head had been reattached and Dr. O'Shay and Reno had been able to use the Batcave's machine shop to fix the mechanical damage to him. They felt more like morticians than doctors however, as they were not able to bring his systems back on line.

"I guess you can't fix him?" Zoran sobbed.

"We can't restart his power supply." Dr. O'Shay told her, "his power couplings and regulators were destroyed and we don't have anything here that could do the job."

Reno examined the pile of exotic parts that they had removed from Zoran. His eyes lit up and he grabbed Dr. O'Shay.

"Maybe we do, Sensei!" Reno told O'Shay. He pointed to the pile of parts they had just removed from Zoran.

O'Shay scratched his head, and then it dawned on him. He picked up a power coupler that Dr. Tenma had installed inside of Zoran, and examined it.

"Yes! These components are compatible with Astro!" He cried. "I think we can adapt enough of them as replacements for all of Astro's parts that were damaged beyond repair. We can fix him!"

Zoran watched as Reno and O'Shay went to work. They shooed her out of the lab, and she walked over to Pinoko with a happy face.

"Dr. O'Shay and Reno are fixing Ani!" she cried happily. Pinoko ran up to Zoran and embraced her.

"I'm so happy!" she cried.

* * *

**Batman** walked into the laboratory just as Astro opened his eyes. He blinked and looked around.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"Quite a while, old chum" Batman said. "I'm so glad to see you back again!"

"The Joker!" Astro asked.

"No longer a problem." Batman reassured Astro.

"How?" Astro puzzled.

"Maybe you'd better ask your sister that one." Batman said. "I still don't believe it myself."

The Caped Crusader gave Astro a hand off the table. Astro gripped Batman's shoulder tightly to stabilize himself walking his first few steps. They left the laboratory and entered the main chamber of the Batcave. Astro was suddenly knocked to the ground by a flying bear hug tackle from Zoran.

"I love you Ani!" she cried. "I'm so glad you're no longer dead!"

* * *

**The Joker** sat on the hard bench in his small prison cell. He didn't understand why Batman didn't kill him. The last words that Batman spoke to him were "I thought of taking out my revenge on you, but you're not worth the trouble." The Caped Crusader had blindfolded him and tied him up in a straight jacket. The next thing he knew he was stuffed inside of a paddy wagon heading for Gotham State prison. The guards removed the blindfold as they handcuffed him into the back of the truck, just in time for him to see Astro wave to him and fly off.

* * *

**Bruce Wayne **sat in a large, overstuffed chair in the great room of the Wayne Manor mansion. Alfred carried him a tray containing a large crystal decanter and a snifter. He poured several ounces of the purple liquid into the large glass, swilled the snifter about, nosed the bouquet, and after nodding his approval, he handed the glass to his employer.

"Thank you Alfred." Bruce acknowledged as he sampled the brandy. "You knew just what I needed at this moment."

"If I didn't know better," the butler replied, "I'd believe that you have started to heal from your grief."

"I don't think I'll ever get over Jason's death." Bruce sighed. "But I'm no longer on the road to self destruction over it. If it wasn't for Zoran, I just might have walked into the Batcave medical room that the Joker's body was in and taken a chain saw to it. The sight of how she reacted to committing an act of revenge scared the crap out of me."

"Let me get it straight Mr. Wayne." Alfred started. "The reaction of a robot AI to a powerful human emotional reaction got to you?"

"Yes it does sound a bit hypocritical doesn't it?" Bruce laughed. "Has Dr. O'Shay left the country yet?"

"I believe his flight is scheduled for late tomorrow, sir." Alfred answered.

"Please get him on a later one, and have him spend the next few days as our guest." Bruce suggested. "I think that I'd like to talk with him on behalf of the Wayne foundation about a grant for developing robotic AI systems for our emergency services projects. I've been too narrow minded on the subject for far too long!"

* * *

**Alfred **entertained Astro and Zoran while Dr. O'Shay and Mr. Wayne were talking in the parlor. Bruce excused himself briefly, and returned with some documents he wanted to have the Dr. examine. Astro and Zoran stopped him before he returned to continue his conversation with Dr. O'Shay.

"I really enjoyed working with you" Astro smiled, adding "and I'll keep that a secret."

"So will I." Zoran promised, making a gesture for Mr. Wayne to stoop down. Bruce bent his knees to look Zoran face to face, and she jumped at him to give him a big embrace.

"I'm into hugs!" she told him.

"Why thank you, Zoran!" Bruce smiled. "You just made my day."

Bruce started to walk back toward the parlor. He felt the dark cloud that had been hanging over his head for the past few weeks evaporate, and he knew he'd be able to go on. Alfred stopped him at the door.

"Don't forget your appointment later this afternoon with the adoption agency." Alfred reminded him. "There is the matter of our new ward."

"Thank you Alfred." Bruce said. "I'm looking forward to that."

* * *

**Zoran** had the window seat during their flight back home from Gotham City. Astro sat in the middle next to his sister, both of them peered out the widow as the plane climbed out after departing from Gotham International. A searchlight beam rose from the ground and illuminated cloud not far from where the aircraft was.

"What is that?" Zoran asked, pointing to the light in the cloud.

"That's the Bat Signal" Dr. O'Shay said. "It means that Batman's help is needed somewhere in the city.

Astro leaned over to get a better view of the ground through the window. He pointed to one of the skyscrapers almost directly below them.  
"There he is, sitting on the ledge the roof of that building!" He said.

Zoran zoomed her vision in closer just in time to get a glance of Batman atop of the Gotham State building, his cape waving in the wind.

"I'm glad to see him back on the job." Zoran smiled. "he's a good person."

Dr. O'Shay found himself deep in thought. The events of the past week echoed in his mind. Astro and Zoran had seemed to turn Bruce Wayne's viewpoint around about robots and AI. Batman also seemed to have been influenced by them. Of course his robotic kids were special, they always seemed to bring out the best in people, but still he wondered….

* * *

**Batman** felt the wind blowing past him. The night air felt invigorating. There was a full moon out, and the Bat-Signal was shining back at him from the clouds. He watched as an airliner climbed and disappeared behind the clouds, and he checked his watch. "That could have been O'Shay's plane" he thought. He hoped he'd meet Astro and Zoran again, under better circumstances, and probably as Bruce Wayne instead of the Batman. "Well time to get to work" he told himself, launching his Batgrapple and swinging into action.


End file.
